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I 


I 


EDUCATION 


THE     HIGHER     LIFE 


EDUCATION 


AND 


THE    HIGHER    LIFE 


^^■7f 


BY 


J.    L.    SPALDING 


The  business  of  education  is  not,  as  I  think,  to  perfect  the  learner 
in  any  of  the  sciences,  but  to  give  his  mind  that  freedom  and  disposition, 
and  tliose  habits,  which  may  enable  him  to  attain  every  part  of  knowl- 
edge himself.  —  Locke 


CHICAGO 

A.   C.   McCLURG    AND    COMPANY 

1891 


Copyright, 

By  a.  C.  McClurg  and  Co., 

A.D.  iSqo. 


^  "  ^  J 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Pagb 

I.    Ideals 7 

II.     Exercise  of  Mind 30 

III.    The  Love  of  Excellence 51 

-^                  IV.  Culture  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Age  .  73 

V.    Self-Culture 92 

•^                 VI.    Growth  and  Duty 117 

VII.     Right  Human  Life 144 

VIII.     University  Education 172 


EDUCATION 


THE    HIGHER    LIFE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

IDEALS. 

A  noble  aim, 
Faithfully  kept,  is  as  a  noble  deed. 

Wordsworth. 

TO  few  men  does  life  bring  a  brighter  day 
than   that  which   places  the  crown    upon 
their  scholastic  labors,  and  bids  them  go  forth 
from  the  halls  of  the  Alma  Mater  to  the  great 
world's    battle-field.      There    is    a    freshness    in 
these  early  triumphs  which,  like  the  bloom  and 
fragrance  of  the  flower,  is  quickly  lost,  never  to 
'  be  found  again  even  by  those  for  whom  Fortune 
,  reserves  her  most  choice  gifts.     Fame,  though 
^  hymned   by  myriad  tongues,   is    not   so    sweet 
as  the  delight  we  drink  from  the  tear-dimmed 
eyes  of  our  mothers  and  sisters,  in  the  sacred 
hours  when  we  can  yet  claim  as  our  own  the 


8  EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER   LIFE. 

love  of  higher  things,  the  faith  and  hope  which 
make  this  mortal  life  immortal,  and  fill  a 
moment  with  a  wealth  of  memories  which  lasts 
through  years.  The  highest  joy  is  serious,  and 
in  the  midst  of  supreme  delight  there  comes  to 
the  soul  a  stillness  which  permits  it  to  rise  to 
the  serene  sphere  where  truth  is  most  gladly 
heard  and  most  easily  perceived ;  and  in  such 
exaltation,  the  young  see  that  life  is  not  what 
they  take  it  to  be.  They  think  it  long;  it  is 
short.  They  think  it  happy ;  it  is  full  of  cares 
and  sorrows.  This  two-fold  illusion  widens  the 
horizon  of  life  and  tinges  it  with  gold.  It  gives 
to  youth  its  charm  and  makes  of  it  a  blessed 
time  to  which  we  ever  turn  regretful  eyes.  But 
I  am  wrong  to  call  illusion  that  which  in  truth 
is  but  an  omen  of  the  divine  possibilities  of 
man's  nature.  To  the  young,  life  is  not  mean 
or  short,  because  the  blessed  freedom  of  youth 
may  make  it  noble  and  immortal.  The  young 
stand  upon  the  threshold  of  the  world.  Of  the 
many  careers  which  are  open  to  human  activity, 
they  will  choose  one;  and  their  fortunes  will 
be  various,  even  though  their  merits  should  be 
equal.  But  if  position,  fame,  and  wealth  are 
often  denied  to  the  most  persistent  efforts  and 
the  best  ability,  it  is  consoling  to  know  they  are 
not  the  highest;  and  as  they  are  not  the  end 
of  life,  they  should  not  be  made  its  aim.     An 


aim,  nevertheless,  we  must  have,  if  we  hope  to 
live  to  good  purpose.  All  men,  in  fact,  whether 
or  not  they  know  it,  have  an  ideal,  base  or  lofty, 
which  moulds  character  and  shapes  destiny. 
Whether  it  be  pleasure  or  gain  or  renown  or 
knowledge,  or  several  of  these,  or  something 
else,  we  all  associate  life  with  some  end,  or  ends, 
the  attainment  of  which  seems  to  us  most 
desirable. 

This  ideal,  that  which  in  our  inmost  souls  we 
love  and  desire,  wliich  we  lay  to  heart  and  live 
by,  is  at  once  the  truest  expression  of  our 
nature  and  the  most  potent  agency  in  develop- 
ing its  powers.  Now,  in  youth  we  form  the 
ideals  which  we  labor  to  body  forth  in  our  lives. 
What  in  these  growing  days  we  yearn  for  with 
all  our  being,  is  heaped  upon  us  in  old  age. 
All  important,  therefore,  is  the  choice  of  an  ideal ;  \ 
for  this  more  than  rules  or  precepts-_will  deter-^ 
mine  what  we  are  to  become.  Tlie  love  of  the 
best  is  twin-born  with  the  soul.  What  is  the 
best?  What  is  the  worthiest  life-aim?  It  must 
be  something  which  is  within  the  reach  of  every 
one,  as  Nature's  best  gifts — air  and  sunshine 
and  water  —  belong  to  all.  What  only  the  few 
can  attain,  cannot  be  life's  real  end  or  the  high- 
est good.  The  best  is  not  far  removed  from 
any  one  of  us,  but  is  alike  near  to  the  poor  and 
the  rich,  to  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  to  the 


10       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

shepherd  and  the  king,  and  only  the  best  can 
give  to  the  soul  repose  and  contentment.  What 
then  is  the  true  life-ideal?  Recalling  to  mind 
the  thoughts  and  theories  of  many  men,  I  can 
find  nothing  better  than  this,  "  Seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God."  "  Love  not  pleasure,"  says 
Carlyle,  "  love  God.  This  is  the  everlasting 
Yea,  wherein  all  contradiction  is  solved ;  where- 
in whoso  walks  and  works,  it  is  well  with  him." 

To  the  high  and  aspiring  heart  of  youth,  fame, 
honor,  glory,  appeal  with  such  irresistible  power, 
and  appear  clad  in  forms  so  beautiful,  that  at  a 
time  of  life  when  all  of  us  are  unreal  in  our  sen- 
timents and  crude  in  our  opinions,  they  are 
often  mistaken  for  the  best.  But  fame  is  good 
only  in  so  far  as  it  gives  power  for  good.  For 
the  rest,  it  is  nominal.  They  who  have  deserved 
it  care  not  for  it.  A  great  soul  is  above  all 
praise  and  dispraise  of  men,  which  are  ever 
given  ignorantly  and  without  fine  discernment. 
The  popular  breath,  even  when  winnowed  by 
the  winds  of  centuries,  is  hardly  pure. 

And  then  fame  cannot  be  the  good  of  which 
I  speak,  for  only  a  very  few  can  even  hope  for 
it.  To  nearly  all,  the  gifts  which  make  it  possi- 
ble are  denied ;  and  to  others,  the  opportunities. 
Many,  indeed,  love  and  win  notoriety,  but  such 
as  they  need  not  detain  us  here.  A  lower  race 
of  youth,  in  whom  the  blood  is  warmer  than  the 


IDEALS.  1 1 

soul,  think  pleasure  life's  best  gift,  and  are  con- 
tent to  let  occasion  die,  while  they  revel  in  the 
elysium  of  the  senses.  But  to  make  pleasure 
an  end  is  to  thwart  one's  purpose,  for  joy  is 
good  only  when  it  comes  unbidden.  The  pleas- 
ure we  seek  begins  already  to  pall.  It  is  good, 
indeed,  if  it  come  as  refreshment  to  the  weary, 
solace  to  the  heavy-hearted,  and  rest  to  the  care- 
worn; but  if  sought  for  its  own  sake,  it  is  "  the 
honey  of  poison  flowers  and  all  the  measureless 
ill."  Only  the  young,  or  the  depraved,  can 
believe  that  to  live  for  pleasure  is  not  to  be  fore- 
ordained to  misery.  Whoso  loves  God  or 
freedom  or  growth  of  mind  or  strength  of 
heart,  feels  that  pleasure  is  his  foe. 

"  A  king  of  feasts  and  flowers,  and  wine  and  revel, 
And  love  and  mirth,  was  never  King  of  glory." 

Of  money,  as  the  end  or  ideal  of  life,  it  should 
not  be  necessary  to  speak.  As  a  fine  contempt 
for  life,  a  willingness  to  throw  it  away  in  defence 
of  any  just  cause  or  noble  opinion,  is  one  of 
the  privileges  of  youth,  so  the  generous  heart 
of  the  young  holds  cheap  the  material  comforts 
which  money  procures.  To  be  young  is  to  be 
free,  to  be  able  to  live  anywhere  on  land  or  sea, 
in  the  midst  of  deserts  or  among  strange  peo- 
ple; is  to  be  able  to  fit  the  mind  and  body  to 
all  circumstance,  and  to  rise  almost  above  Na- 
ture's iron  law.      He  who  is  impelled    by  this 


12       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

high  and  heavenly  spirit  will  dream  of  flying 
and  not  of  hobbling  through  life  on  golden 
crutches.  Let  the  feeble  and  the  old  put  their 
trust  in  money;  but  where  there  is  strength  and 
youth,  the  soul  should  be  our  guide. 

And  yet  the  very  law  and  movement  of  our 
whole  social  life  seem  to  point  to  riches  as  the 
chief  good. 

"  What  is  that  which  I  should  turn  to,  lighting  upon  days  like 
these  ? 
Every  door  is  barred  with  gold,  and  opens  but  to  golden 
keys." 

Money  is  the  god  in  whom  we  put  our  trust, 
to  whom  instinctively  we  pay  homage.  We 
believe  that  the  rich  are  fortunate,  are  happy, 
that  the  best  of  life  has  been  given  to  them. 
We  have  faith  in  the  power  of  money,  in  its 
sovereign  efficacy  to  save  us  not  only  from  beg- 
gary, from  sneers  and  insults,  but  we  believe 
that  it  can  transform  us,  and  take  away  the 
poverty  of  mind,  the  narrowness  of  heart,  the 
dulness  of  imagination,  which  make  us  weak, 
hard,  and  common.  Even  our  hatred  of  the 
rich  is  but  another  form  of  the  worship  of 
money.  The  poor  think  they  are  wretched, 
because  they  think  money  the  chief  good ;  and 
if  they  are  right,  then  is  it  a  holy  work  to  strive 
to  overthrow  society  as  it  is  now  constituted. 
Buckle  and  Strauss  find  fault  with  the  Christian 


IDEALS.  1 3 

religion  because  it  does  not  inculcate  the  love  of 
money.  But  in  this,  faith  and  reason  are  in  har- 
mony. Wealth  is  not  the  best,  and  to  make 
it  the  end  of  life  is  idolatry,  and  as  Saint  Paul 
declares,  the  root  of  evil.  Man  is  more  tTian 
money,  as  the  workman  is  more  than  his  tools. 
The  soul  craves  quite  other  nourishment  than 
that  which  the  whole  material  universe  can  sup- 
ply. Man's  chief  good  lies  in  the  infinite  world 
of  thought  and  righteousness.  Fame  and  wealth 
and  pleasure  are  good  when  they  are  born  of 
high  thinking  and  right  living,  when  they  lead 
to  purer  faith  and  love  ;  but  if  they  are  sought  as 
ends  and  loved  for  themselves,  they  blight  and 
corrupt.  The  value  of  culture  is  great,  and  the 
ideal  it  presents  points  in  the  right  direction  in 
bidding  us  build  up  the  being  which  we  are. 
But  since  man  is  not  the  highest,  he  may  not, 
rest  in  himself,  and  culture  therefore  is  a  means/ 
rather  than  an  end.  If  we  make  it  the  chief  airri 
of  life,  it  degenerates  into  a  principle  of  exclu- 
sion, destroys  sympathy,  and  terminates  in  a  sort 
of  self-worship. 

What  remains,  then,  but  the  ideal  which  I 
have  proposed?  —  "Seek  ye  first  the  King- 
dom of  God."  Unless  the  light  of  Heaven 
fall  along  our  way,  thick  darkness  gathers  about 
us,  and  in  the  end,  whatever  our  success  may 
have   been,  we  fail,   and   are  without   God   and 


14      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

without  hope.  So  long  as  any  seriousness  is 
left,  religion  is  man's  first  and  deepest  concern; 
to  be  indifferent  is  to  be  dull  or  depraved,  and 
doubt  is  disease.  Difficulties  assuredly  there  are, 
underlying  not  only  faith,  but  all  systems  of 
knowledge.  How  am  I  certain  that  I  know 
anything?  is  a  question,  debated  in  all  past  time, 
debatable  in  all  future  time  ;  but  we  are  none  the 
less  certain  that  we  know.  The  mind  is  gov- 
erned by  laws  which  neither  science  nor  philoso- 
phy can  change,  and  while  theories  and  systems 
rise  and  pass  away,  the  eternal  problems  present 
themselves  ever  anew  clothed  in  the  eternal 
mystery.  But  little  discernment  is  needed  to 
enable  us  to  perceive  how  poor  and  symbolic 
are  the  thoughts  of  the  multitude.  Half  in  pity, 
half  in  contempt,  we  rise  to  higher  regions  only 
to  discover  that  wherever  we  may  be  there  also 
are  the  laws  and  the  limitations  of  our  being; 
and  that  in  whatsoever  sanctuaries  we  may  take 
refuge,  we  are  still  of  the  crowd.  We  cannot 
grasp  the  Infinite ;  language  cannot  express 
even  what  we  know  of  the  Divine  Being,  and 
hence  there  remains  a  background  of  darkness, 
where  it  is  possible  to  adore,  or  to  mock.  But 
religion  dispels  more  mystery  than  it  involves. 
With  it,  there  is  twilight  in  the  world ;  without 
it,  night.  We  are  in  the  world  to  act,  not  to 
doubt.     Leaving  quibbles  to  those  who  can  find 


IDEALS.  1 5 

no  better  use  for  life,  the  wise,  with  firm  faith 
in  God  and  man,  strive  to  make  themselves 
worthy  to  do  brave  and  righteous  work.  Dis- 
trust is  the  last  wisdom  a  great  heart  learns ; 
and  noble  natures  feel  that  the  generous  view  is, 
in  the  end,  the  true  view.  For  them  life  means 
good ;  they  find  strength  and  joy  in  this  whole- 
some and  cheerful  faith,  and  if  they  are  in  error, 
it  can  never  be  known,  for  if  death  end  all, 
with  it  knowledge  ceases.  Perceiving  this,  they 
strive  to  gain  spiritual  insight,  they  look  to  God  ; 
toward  him  they  turn  the  current  of  their 
thought  and  love ;  the  unseen  world  of  truth 
and  beauty  becomes  their  home ;  and  while  mat- 
ter flows  on  and  breaks  and  remakes  itself  to 
break  again,  they  dwell  in  the  presence  of  the 
Eternal,  and  become  co-workers  with  the  Infi- 
nite Power  which  makes  goodness  good,  and  jus- 
tice right.  They  love  knowledge,  because  God 
knows  all  things ;  they  love  beauty,  because  he 
is  its  source;  they  love  the  soul,  because  it 
brings  man  into  conscious  communion  with  him 
and  his  universe.  If  their  ideal  is  poetical, 
they  catch  in  the  finer  spirit  of  truth  which  the 
poet  breathes,  the  fragrance  of  the  breath  of 
God ;  if  it  is  scientific,  they  discover  in  the  laws 
of  Nature  the  harmony  of  his  attributes ;  if  it  is 
political  and  social,  they  trace  the  principles  of 
justice    and    liberty   to    him;    if   it    is    philan- 


1 6       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

thropic,    they   understand    that    love   which    is 
the  basis,  aim,  and  end  of  life  is  also  God. 

The  root  of  their  being  is  in  him,  and  the 
illusory  world  of  the  senses  cannot  dim  their 
vision  of  the  real  world  which  is  eternal.  By 
self-analysis  the  mind  is  sublimated  until  it  be- 
comes a  shadow  in  a  shadowy  universe ;  and  the 
criticism  of  the  reason  drives  us  to  doubt  and 
inaction,  from  which  we  are  redeemed  by  our 
necessary  faith  in  our  own  freedom,  in  our 
power  to  act,  and  in  the  duty  of  acting  in  obe- 
dience to  higher  law.  Knowledge  comes  of  do- 
ing. Never  to  act  is  never  to  know.  The  world 
of  which  we  are  conscious  is  the  world  against 
which  we  throw  ourselves  by  the  power  of  the 
will ;  hence  life  is  chiefly  conduct,  and  its  ideal 
is  not  merely  religious,  but  moral.  The  duty  of 
obedience  to  our  better  self  determines  the  pur- 
pose and  end  of  action,  for  the  better  self  is 
under  the  impulse  of  God.  Whether  we  look 
without  or  within,  we  find  things  are  as  they 
should  not  be;  and  there  awakens  the  desire, 
nay,  the  demand  that  they  be  made  other  and 
better.  The  actual  is  a  mockery  unless  it  may 
be  looked  upon  as  the  means  of  a  higher  state. 
If  all  things  come  forth  only  to  perish  and  again 
come  forth  as  they  were  before;  if  life  is  a 
monster  which  destroys  itself  that  it  may  again 
be  born,  again  to  destroy  itself,  —  were  it  not  bet- 


IDEALS.  17 

ter  that  the  tragedy  should  cease?  For  many 
centuries  men  have  been  struggHng  for  richer 
and  happier  Hfe ;  and  yet  when  we  behold  the 
sins,  the  miseries,  the  wrongs,  the  sorrows,  of 
which  the  world  is  full,  we  are  tempted  to  think 
that  progress  means  failure.  The  multitude  are 
still  condemned  to  toil  from  youth  to  age  to 
provide  the  food  by  which  life  is  kept  in  the 
body;  immortal  spirits  are  still  driven  by  hard 
necessity  to  fix  their  thoughts  upon  matter 
from  which  they  with  much  labor  dig  forth 
what  nourishes  the  animal.  Like  the  savage, 
we  still  tremble  before  the  pitiless  might  of 
Nature.  Floods,  hurricanes,  earthquakes,  un- 
timely frosts,  destroy  in  a  moment  what  with 
long  and  painful  effort  has  been  provided. 
Pestilence  still  stalks  through  the  earth  to  slay 
and  make  desolate.  Each  day  a  hundred  thou- 
sand human  beings  die ;  and  how  many  of  these 
perish  as  the  victims  of  sins  of  ignorance,  of 
selfishness,  of  sensuality. 

To-day,  as  of  old,  it  would  seem  man's 
worst  enemy  is  man.  What  hordes  still  wan- 
der through  Asia  and  Africa,  seeking  oppor- 
tunity for  murder  and  rapine;  what  multitudes 
are  still  hunted  like  beasts,  caught  and  sold 
into  slavery.  In  Europe  millions  of  men  stand, 
arms  in  hand,  waiting  for  the  slaughter.  They 
still  believe,  because  they  were  born  on  differ- 
2 


1 8       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

ent  sides  of  a  river  and  speak  different  lan- 
guages, that  they  are  natural  enemies,  made 
to  destroy  one  another.  And  in  our  own 
country,  what  other  sufferings  and  wrongs, — 
greed,  sensuality,  injustice,  deceit, — make  us 
enemies  one  of  another !  There  is  a  general 
struggle  in  which  each  one  strives  to  get  the 
most,  heedless  of  the  misery  of  others.  We 
trade  upon  the  weaknesses,  the  vices,  and  the 
follies  of  our  fellow-men ;  and  every  attempt 
at  reform  is  met  by  an  army  of  upholders  of 
abuse.  When  we  consider  the  murders,  the 
suicides,  the  divorces,  the  adulteries,  the  prosti- 
tutions, the  brawls,  the  drunkenness,  the  dis- 
honesties, the  political  and  official  corruptions, 
of  which  our  life  is  full,  it  is  difficult  to  have 
complacent  thoughts  of  ourselves.  Consider, 
too,  our  prisons,  our  insane  asylums,  our  poor- 
houses;  the  multitudes  of  old  men  and  women, 
who  having  worn  out  strength  and  health  in 
toil  which  barely  gave  them  food  and  raiment, 
are  thrust  aside,  no  longer  now  fit  to  be  bought 
and  sold ;  the  countless  young  people,  who 
have,  as  we  say,  been  educated,  but  who  have 
not  been  taught  the  principles  and  habits  which 
lead  to  honorable  living;  the  thousands  in  our 
great  cities  who  are  driven  into  surroundings 
which  pervert  and  undermine  character.  And 
worse  still,  the  good,  instead  of  uniting  to  labor 


IDEALS.  19 

for  a  better  state  of  things,  misunderstand  and 
thwart  one  another.  They  divide  into  parties, 
are  jealous  and  contentious,  and  waste  their 
time  and  exhaust  their  strength  in  fooHsh  and 
futile  controversies.  They  are  not  anxious  that 
good  be  done,  nor  asking  nor  caring  by  whom ; 
but  they  seek  credit  for  themselves,  and  while 
they  seem  to  be  laboring  for  the  general  welfare, 
are  striving  rather  to  satisfy  their  own  selfish 
vanity. 

But  the  knowledge  of  all  this  does  not  dis- 
courage him  who,  guided  by  the  light  of  true 
ideals,  labors  to  make  reason  and  the  will  of 
God  prevail.  If  things  are  bad  he  knows  they 
have  been  worse.  Never  before  have  the  faith 
and  culture  which  make  us  human,  which  make 
us  strong  and  wise,  been  the  possession  of  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  race.  Religion  and 
civilization  have  diffused  themselves,  from  little 
centres  —  from  Athens  and  Jerusalem  and  Rome 
—  until  people  after  people,  whole  continents, 
have  been  brought  under  their  influence.  And 
in  our  day  this  diffusion  is  so  rapid  that  it 
spreads  farther  in  a  decade  than  formerly  in 
centuries.  For  ages,  mountains  and  rivers  and 
oceans  were  barriers  behind  which  tribes  and 
nations  intrenched  themselves  against  the  hu- 
man foe.  But  we  have  tunnelled  the  moun- 
tains;   we   have  bridged   the   rivers;    we   have 


20      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

tamed  the  oceans.  We  hitch  steam  and  elec- 
tricity to  our  wagons,  and  in  a  few  days  make 
the  circuit  of  the  globe.  All  lands,  all  seas,  are 
open  to  us.  The  race  is  getting  acquainted 
with  itself.  We  make  a  comparative  study  of 
all  literatures,  of  all  religions,  of  all  philoso- 
phies, of  all  political  systems.  We  find  some 
soul  of  goodness  in  whatever  struggles  and 
yearnings  have  tried  man's  heart.  As  the 
products  of  every  clime  are  carried  everywhere, 
like  gifts  from  other  worlds,  so  the  highest 
science  and  the  purest  religion  are  communi- 
cated and  taught  throughout  the  earth :  and  as 
a  result,  national  prejudices  and  antagonisms 
are  beginning  to  disappear;  wars  are  becoming 
less  frequent  and  less  cruel ;  established  wrongs 
are  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  opinion;  privi- 
leged classes  are  losing  their  hold  upon  the 
imagination ;  and  opportunity  offers  itself  to 
ever-increasing  numbers. 

Now,  in  all  this,  what  do  we  perceive  but  the 
purpose  of  God,  urging  mankind  to  wider  and 
nobler  life?  History  is  his  many-chambered 
school.  Here  he  has  taught  this  lesson,  and 
there  another,  still  leading  his  children  out  of 
the  darkness  of  sin  and  ignorance  toward  the 
light  of  righteousness  and  love,  until  his  king- 
dom come,  until  his  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it 
is  in  heaven.     To   believe   in   God  and  in  this 


IDEALS.  2 1 

divine  education,  and  to  make  co-operation  with 
his  providential  guidance  of  the  race  a  hfe-aim 
is  to  have  an  ideal  which  is  not  only  the  highest, 
but  which  also  blends  all  other  true  ideals  into 
harmony.  And  the  lovers  of  culture  should  be 
the  first  to  perceive  that  intellectual  good  is 
empty,  illusory,  unless  there  be  added  to  it  the 
good  of  the  heart,  the  good  of  conscience.  To 
live  for  the  cultivation  of  one's  mind,  is,  after  all, 
to  live  for  one's  self,  and  therefore  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  eternal  law  which  makes  it  im- 
possible for  us  to  find  ourselves  except  in  what 
is  not  ourselves.  "  It  is  the  capital  fault  of  all 
cultivated  men,"  says  Goethe,  "  that  they  devote 
their  whole  energies  to  the  carrying  out  of  a 
mere  idea,  and  seldom  or  never  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  practical  good."  Whatever  may  be  said 
in  praise  of  culture,  of  its  power  to  make  its 
possessor  at  home  in  the  world  of  the  best 
thought,  the  purest  sentiment,  the  highest 
achievements  of  the  race;  of  the  freedom,  the 
mildness,  the  reasonableness  of  the  temper  it 
begets;  of  its  aim  at  completeness  and  perfec- 
tion,—  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  if  it  be  sought 
apart  from  faith  in  God  and  devotion  to  man, 
its  tendency  is  to  produce  an  artificial  and  un- 
sympathetic character.  The  primal  impulse  of 
our  nature  is  to  action ;  and  unless  we  can  make 
our  thought  a  kind  of  deed,  it  seems  to  be  vain 


22       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

and  unreal ;  and  unless  the  harmonious  devel- 
opment of  all  the  endowments  which  make  the 
beauty  and  dignity  of  human  life,  give,  us  new 
strength  and  will  to  work  with  God  for  the  good 
of  men,  sadness  and  a  sense  of  failure  fall  upon 
us.  To  have  a  cultivated  mind,  to  be  able  to 
I  see  things  on  many  sides,  to  have  wide  sympa- 
thy and  the  power  of  generous  appreciation,  —  is 
most  desirable,  and  without  something  of  all 
this,  not  only  is  our  life  narrow  and  uninterest- 
ing, but  our  energy  is  turned  in  wrong  direc- 
tions, and  our  very  religion  is  in  danger  of 
losing  its  catholicity. 

Culture,  then,  is  necessary.  We  need  it  as  a 
corrective  of  the  tendency  to  seek  the  good  of 
life  in  what  is  external,  as  a  means  of  helping 
us  to  overcome  our  vulgar  self-complacency, 
our  satisfaction  with  low  aims  and  cheap  accom- 
plishments, our  belief  in  the  sovereign  potency 
of  machines  and  measures.  We  need  it  to 
make  our  lives  less  unlovely,  less  hard,  less  ma- 
terial ;  to  help  us  to  understand  the  idolatry  of 
the  worship  of  steam  and  electricity,  the  utter 
insufficiency  of  the  ideals  of  industrialism.  But 
if  culture  is  to  become  a  mighty  transforming 
influence  it  must  be  wedded  to  religious  faith, 
without  which,  while  it  widens  the  intellectual 
view,  it  weakens  the  will  to  act.  To  take  us  out 
of  ourselves  and   to  ure:e   us  on  to  labor  with 


IDEALS.  23 

God  that  we  may  leave  the  world  better  because 
we  have  lived,  religion  alone  has  power.  It 
gives  neyv  vigor  to  the  cultivated  mind;  it  takes 
away  the  exclusive  and  fastidious  temper  which 
a  purely  intellectual  habit  tends  to  produce;  it 
enlarges  sympathy ;  it  teaches  reverence ;  it 
nourishes  faith,  inspires  hope,  exalts  the  imagi- 
nation, and  keeps  alive  the  fire  of  love.  To 
lead  a  noble,  a  beautiful,  and  a  useful  life,  we 
should  accept  and  follow  the  ideals  both  of 
religion  and  of  culture.  In  the  midst  of  the 
transformations  of  many  kinds  which  are  taking 
place  in  the  civilized  world,  neither  the  unedu- 
cated nor  the  irreligious  mind  can  be  of  help. 
Large  and  tolerant  views  are  necessary ;  but  not 
less  so  is  the  enthusiasm,  the  earnestness,  the 
charity  of  Christian  faith.  They  who  are  to  be 
leaders  in  the  great  movements  upon  which  we 
have  entered,  must  both  know  and  believe. 
They  must  understand  the  age,  must  sympathize 
with  whatever  is  true  and  beneficent  in  its  aspi- 
rations, must  hail  with  thankfulness  whatever 
help  science,  and  art,  and  culture  can  bring;  but 
they  must  also  know  and  feel  that  man  is  of 
the  race  of  God,  and  that  his  real  and  true  life 
is  in  the  unseen,  infinite,  and  eternal  world  of 
thought  and  love,  with  which  the  actual  world 
of  the  senses  must  be  brought  into  ever-increas- 
ing harmony.     Liberty  and  equality  are  good, 


24      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

wealth  is  good,  and  with  them  we  can  do  much, 
but  not  all  that  needs  to  be  done.  The  spirit 
of  Christ  is  not  merely  the  spirit  of  liberty  and 
equality ;  it  is  more  essentially  the  spirit  of  love, 
of  sympathy,  of  goodness;  and  this  spirit  must 
breathe  upon  our  social  life  until  it  becomes  as 
different  from  what  it  is  as  is  fragrant  spring 
from  cheerless  winter.  Sympathy  must  become 
universal ;  not  merely  as  a  sentiment  prompting 
to  deeds  of  helpfulness  and  mercy,  but  as  the 
informing  principle  of  society  until  it  attains 
such  perfectness  that  whatever  is  loss  or  gain 
for  one,  shall  be  felt  as  loss  or  gain  for  all.  The 
narrow,  exclusive  self  must  lose  itself  in  wider 
aims,  in  generous  deeds,  in  the  comprehensive 
love  of  God  and  man.  The  good  must  no  longer 
thwart  one  another ;  the  weak  must  be  protected ; 
the  wicked  must  be  surrounded  by  influences 
which  make  for  righteousness ;  and  the  forces  of 
Nature  itself  must  more  and  more  be  brought 
under  man's  control.  Pestilence  and  famine 
must  no  longer  bring  death  and  desolation ;  men 
must  no  longer  drink  impure  water  and  adul- 
terated liquors,  no  longer  must  they  breathe 
the  poisonous  air  of  badly  constructed  houses; 
dwellings  which  are  now  made  warm  in  winter, 
must  be  made  cool  in  summer;  miasmatic 
swamps  must  be  drained ;  saloons,  which  stand 
like  painted    harlots   to    lure    men    to    sin    and 


IDEALS.  25 

death,  must  be  closed.  Women  must  have  the 
same  rights  and  privileges  as  men ;  children 
must  no  longer  be  made  the  victims  of  mam- 
mon and  offered  in  sacrifice  in  his  temple,  the 
factory;  ignorance,  which  is  the  most  fruitful 
cause  of  misery,  must  give  place  to  knowledge; 
war  must  be  condemned  as  public  murder,  and 
our  present  system  of  industrial  competition 
must  be  considered  worse  than  war;  the  social 
organization,  which  makes  the  few  rich,  and 
dooms  the  many  to  the  slavery  of  poorly  paid 
toil,  must  cease  to  exist;  and  if  the  political 
state  is  responsible  for  this  cruelty,  it  must  find 
a  remedy ,  or  be  overthrown;  society  must  be 
made  to  rest  upon  justice  and  love,  without 
which  it  is  but  organized  wrong.  These  princi- 
ples must  so  thoroughly  pervade  our  public  life 
that  it  can  no  more  be  the  interest  of  any  one 
to  wrong  his  fellow,  to  grow  rich  at  the  cost  of 
the  poverty  and  misery  of  another.  Life  must 
be  prolonged  both  by  removing  many  of  the 
physical  causes  of  death,  and  by  making  men 
more  rational  and  religious,  more  willing  and 
able  to  deny  themselves  those  indulgences  which 
are  but  a  kind  of  slow  suicide. 

Never  before  have  questions  so  vast,  so  com- 
plex, so  pregnant  with  meaning,  so  fraught 
with  the  promise  of  good,  presented  themselves  ; 
and  it  can  hardly  be   vanity   or  conceit  which 


26      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

prompts  us  to  believe  that  in  this  mighty  move- 
ment toward  a  social  life  in  harmony  with  our 
idea  of  God  and  with  the  aspirations  of  the  soul, 
America  is  the  divinely  appointed  leader.  But 
if  this  faith  is  not  to  be  a  mere  delusion,  it  must 
become  for  the  best  among  us  the  impulse  to 
strong  and  persevering  effort.  Not  by  million- 
naires  and  not  by  politicians  shall  this  salvation 
be  wrought;  but  by  men  who  to  pure  religion 
add  the  best  intellectual  culture.  The  American 
youth  must  learn  patience ;  he  must  acquire  that 
serene  confidence  in  the  power  of  labor,  which 
makes  workers  willing  to  wait.  He  must  not, 
like  a  foolish  child,  rush  forward  to  pluck  the 
fruit  before  it  is  ripe,  lest  this  be  his  epitaph: 
The  promise  of  his  early  life  was  great,  his  per- 
formance insignificant. 

Do  not  our  young  men  lack  noble  ambition? 
Are  they  not  satisfied  with  low  aims?  To  be  a 
legislator;  to  be  a  governor;  to  be  talked  about; 
to  live  in  a  marble  house,  —  seems  to  them  a 
thing  to  be  desired.  Unhappy  youths  from  whom 
the  power  and  goodness  of  life  are  hidden,  who, 
standing  in  the  presence  of  the  unseen,  infinite 
world  of  truth  and  beauty,  can  only  dream  some 
aldermanic  nightmare.  They  thrust  themselves 
into  the  noisy  crowd,  and  are  thrown  into  con- 
tact with  disenchanting  experience  at  a  time  of 
life  when  the  mind  and  heart  should  draw  nour- 


IDEALS. 


27 


ishment  and  wisdom  from  communion  with  God 
and  with  great  thoughts.  Amid  the  universal 
clatter  of  tongues,  and  in  the  overflowing  cease- 
less stream  of  newspaper  gossip,  the  soul  is  be- 
wildered and  stifled.  In  a  blatant  land,  the 
young  should  learn  to  be  silent.  The  noblest 
minds  are  fashioned  in  secrecy,  through  long 
travail  like,  — 

"  Wines  that,  Heaven  knows  where. 
Have  sucked  the  fire  of  some  forgotten  sun 
And  kept  it  thro'  a  hundred  years  of  gloom 
Yet  glowing  in  a  heart  of  ruby." 

Is  it  not  worth  the  labor  and  expectation  of 
a  life-time  to  be  able  to  do,  even  once,  the  right 
thing  excellently  well?  The  eager  passion  for 
display,  the  desire  to  speak  and  act  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  is  boyish.  Will  is  concentration, 
and  a  great  purpose  works  in  secrecy.  Oh,  the 
goodness  and  the  seriousness  of  life,  the  illimi- 
table reach  of  achievement,  which  it  opens  to 
the  young  who  have  a  great  heart  and  noble 
aims  !  With  them  is  God's  almighty  power  and 
love,  and  his  very  presence  is  hidden  from  them 
by  a  film  only.  From  this  little  islet  they  look 
out  upon  infinite  worlds;  heaven  bends  over 
them,  and  earth  bears  them  up  as  though  it 
would  have  them  fly.  How  is  it  possible  to 
remain  inferior  when  we  believe  in  God  and 
know  that  this  age  is  the  right  moment  for  all 


28       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

high  and  holy  work?  The  yearning  for  guid- 
ance has  never  been  so  great.  We  have  reached 
heights  where  the  brain  swims,  and  thoughts  are 
confused,  and  it  is  held  to  be  questionable 
whether  we  are  to  turn  backward  or  to  move 
onward  to  the  land  of  promise ;  whether  we  arc 
to  be  overwhelmed  by  the  material  world  which 
we  have  so  marvellously  transformed,  or  with 
the  aid  of  the  secrets  we  have  learned,  are  to 
rise  Godward  to  a  purer  and  fairer  life  of  knowl- 
edge, justice,  and  love. 

Is  the  material  progress  of  the  nineteenth 
century  a  cradle  or  a  grave?  Are  we  to  con- 
tinue to  dig  and  delve  and  peer  into  matter 
until  God  and  the  soul  fade  from  our  view  and 
we  become  like  the  things  we  work  in?  To 
put  such  questions  to  the  multitude  were  idle. 
There  is  here  no  affair  of  votes  and  majorities. 
Human  nature  has  not  changed,  and  now,  as 
in  the  past,  crowds  follow  leaders.  What  the 
best  minds  and  the  most  energetic  characters 
believe  and  teach  and  put  in  practice,  the  mil- 
Hons  will  come  to  accept.  The  doubt  is  whether 
the  leaders  will  be  worthy,  — the  real  permanent 
leaders,  for  the  noisy  apparent  leaders  can  never 
be  so.  And  here  we  touch  the  core  of  the  prob- 
lem which  Americans  have  to  solve.  No  other 
people  has  such  numbers  who  are  ready  to 
thrust  themselves  forward  as  leaders,  no  other 


IDEALS.  29 

has  so  few  who  are  really  able  to  lead.  In  miti- 
gation of  this  fact,  it  may  be  said  with  truth, 
that  nowhere  else  is  it  so  difficult  to  lead ;  for 
nowhere  else  does  force  rule  so  little.  Every 
one  has  opinions  ;  the  whole  nation  is  awakened  ; 
thousands  are  able  to  discuss  any  subject  with 
plausibility ;  and  to  be  simply  keen-witted  and 
versatile  is  to  be  of  the  crowd.  We  need  men 
whose  intellectual  view  embraces  the  history  of 
the  race,  who  are  familiar  with  all  literature, 
who  have  studied  all  social  movements,  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  development  of  philosophic 
thought,  who  are  not  blinded  by  physical  mira- 
cles and  industrial  wonders,  but  know  how  to 
appreciate  all  truth,  all  beauty,  all  goodness. 
And  to  this  wide  culture  they  must  join  the 
earnestness,  the  confidence,  the  charity,  and  the 
purity  of  motive  which  Christian  faith  inspires. 
We  need  scholars  who  are  saints,  and  saints  who 
are  scholars.  We  need  men  of  genius  who  live 
for  God  and  their  country;  men  of  action  who 
seek  for  light  in  the  company  of  those  who 
know  ;  men  of  religion  who  understand  that  God 
reveals  himself  in  science,  and  works  in  Nature 
as  in  the  soul  of  man,  for  the  good  of  those  who 
love  him.  Let  us  know  the  right  moment,  and 
let  us  know  that  it  comes  for  those  alone  who 
are  prepared. 


CHAPTER   II. 

EXERCISE   OF   MIND. 

O  heavens  !  how  awful  is  the  might  of  souls 
And  what  they  do  within  themselves  while  yet 
The  yoke  of  earth  is  new  to  them,  the  world 
Nothing  but  a  wild  field  where  they  were  sown. 

Wordsworth. 

LEARNING  is  acquaintance  with  what  others 
have  felt,  thought,  and  done ;  knowledge 
is  the  result  of  what  we  ourselves  have  felt, 
thought,  and  done.  Hence  a  man  knows  best 
what  he  has  taught  himself;  what  personal  con- 
tact with  God,  with  man,  and  with  Nature  has 
made  his  own.  The  important  thing,  then,  is 
not  so  much  to  know  the  thoughts  and  loves 
of  others,  as  to  be  able  ourselves  to  think  truly, 
and  to  love  nobly.  The  aim  should  be  to  rouse, 
strengthen,  and  illumine  the  mind  rather  than 
to  store  it  with  learning ;  and  the  great  educa- 
tional problem  has  been,  and  is,  how  to  give  to 
the  soul  purity  of  intention,  to  the  conscience 
steadfastness,  and  to  the  mind  force,  pliability, 
and  openness  to  light;  or  in  other  words,  how 
to  bring  philosophy  and  religion  to  the  aid  of 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  3  I 

the  will  so  that  the  better  self  shall  prevail  and 

each    generation    introduce    its    successor   to    a 

higher  plane  of  life. 

To  this  end  the  efforts  of  all  teachers  have, 

with  more  or   less  consciousness,  tended;    and 

in   this   direction   too,  along  winding  ways  and 

with  periods  of  arrest  or  partial  return,  the  race 

of  man  has  for  ages  been  moving ;   and  he  who 

aspires  to  gain  a  place  in  the  van  of  the  mighty 

army  on  its  heavenward  march,  — 

"  And  draw  new  furrows  'neath  the  healthy  morn 
And  plant  the  great  Hereafter  in  this  Now,"  — 

may  be  rash,  but  his  spirit  is  not  ignoble.  To 
him  it  may  not  be  given  "  to  fan  and  winnow 
from  the  coming  step  of  Time  the  chaff  of 
custom ;  "  but  if  he  persevere  he  may  confi- 
dently hope  that  his  thought  and  love  shall 
at  length  rise  to  fairer  and  more  enduring 
worlds.  He  weds  himself  to  things  of  light, 
seeks  aids  to  true  life  within,  learns  to  live 
with  the  noble  dead,  and  with  the  great  souls 
of  the  present  who  have  uttered  the  truth 
whereby  they  live,  in  a  way  more  intimate  and 
higher  than  that  granted  to  those  who  are  with 
them  day  by  day;  for  minds  are  not  separated 
by  time  and  space,  but  by  quality  of  thought. 
But  to  be  able  to  love  this  life,  and  with  all 
one's  heart  to  seek  this  close  communion  with 
God,  with  noble  souls,  and  with  Nature  is  not 


32       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

easy,  and  it  may  be  that  it  is  impossible  for 
those  who  are  not  drawn  to  it  by  irresistible 
instincts.  For  the  intellect,  at  least,  attractions 
are  proportional  to  destiny;  and  the  art  of  in- 
tellectual life  is  not  most  surely  learned  by 
those  whom  circumstances  favor,  but  by  those 
whom  will  impels  onward  to  exercise  of  mind ; 
whom  neither  daily  wants,  nor  animal  appetites, 
nor  hope  of  gain,  nor  low  ambition,  nor  sneers 
of  worldlings,  nor  prayers  of  friends,  nor  aught 
else  can  turn  from  the  pursuit  of  wisdom ;  who, 
with  ceaseless  labor  and  with  patient  thought, 
eat  their  way  in  silence,  like  caterpillars,  to  the 
light,  become  their  own  companions,  walk 
uplifted  by  their  own  thoughts,  and  by  slow 
and  imperceptible  processes  are  transformed 
and  grow  to  be  the  embodiment  of  the  truth 
and  beauty  which  they  see  and  love. 

The  overmastering  love  of  mental  exercise, 
of  the  good  of  the  intellect,  is  probably  never 
found  in  formal  and  prosaic  minds;  or  if  so,  its 
first  awakening  is  in  the  early  years  when  to 
think  is  to  feel,  when  the  soul,  fresh  from  God, 
comes  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  and  the  sun  and 
moon  and  stars,  and  the  hills  and  flowing 
waters  seem  but  made  to  crown  with  joy  hearts 
that  love.  It  is  in  these  dewy  dawns  that  the 
image  of  beauty  is  imprinted  on  the  soul  and 
the  sense  of  mystery  awakens.    We  move  about 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  33 

and  become  a  part  of  all  we  see,  grow  akin  to 
stones  and  leaves  and  birds,  and  to  all  young 
and  happy  things.  We  lose  ourselves  in  life 
which  is  poured  round  us  like  an  unending  sea; 
are  natural,  healthful,  alive  to  all  we  see  and 
touch ;  have  no  misgivings,  but  walk  as  though 
the  eternal  God  held  us  by  the  hand.  These 
are  the  fair  spring  days  when  we  suck  honey 
that  shall  nourish  us  in  the  winters  of  which  we 
do  not  dream ;  when  sunsets  interfuse  them- 
selves with  all  our  being  until  we  are  dyed  in 
the  many-tinted  glory;  when  the  miracle  of  the 
changing  year  is  the  soul's  fair  seed-time ;  when 
lying  in  the  grass,  the  head  resting  in  clasped 
hands,  while  soft  white  clouds  float  lazily 
through  azure  skies,  and  the  birds  warble,  and 
the  waters  murmur,  and  the  flowers  breathe 
fragrance,  we  feel  a  kind  of  unconscious  con- 
sciousness of  a  universal  life  in  Nature.  The 
very  rocks  seem  to  be  listening  to  what  the 
leaves  whisper;  and  through  the  silent  eterni- 
ties we  almost  see  the  dead  becoming  the  liv- 
ing, the  living  the  dead,  until  both  grow  to  be 
one,  and  whatever  is,  is  life. 

He  who  has  never  had  these  visions;  has 
never  heard  these  airy  voices  ;  has  never  seemed 
about  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  inner  heart  of 
being,  pulsing  beneath  the  veil  of  visible  things; 
has  never  felt  that  he  himself  is  a  spirit  looking 
3 


34      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

blindly  on  a  universe,  which  if  his  eyes  could 
but  see  and  his  ears  hear,  would  be  revealed  as 
the  very  heaven  of  the  infinite  God,  —  must  for- 
ever lack  something  of  the  freshness,  of  the 
eager  delight,  with  which  a  poetic  mind  contem- 
plates the  world  and  follows  whither  the  divine 
intimations  point.  This  early  intercourse  with 
Nature  nourishes  the  soul,  deepens  the  intellect, 
exalts  the  imagination,  and  fills  the  memory  with 
fair  and  noble  forms  and  images  which  abide 
with  us,  and  as  years  pass  on,  gain  in  softness 
and  purity  what  they  may  lose  in  distinctness  of 
outline  and  color.  This  is  the  source  of  intel- 
lectual wealth,  of  tranquil  moods,  of  patience  in 
the  midst  of  opposition,  of  confidence  in  the 
fruitfulness  of  labor  and  the  transforming  power 
of  time.  Here  is  given  the  material  which  must 
be  moulded  into  form ;  the  rude  blocks  which 
must  be  cut  and  dressed  and  fitted  together  un- 
til they  become  a  spiritual  temple  wherein  the 
soul  may  rest  at  one  with  God  and  Nature,  and 
with  its  own  thought  and  love.  To  run,  to 
jump,  to  ride,  to  swim,  to  skate,  to  sit  in  the 
shade  of  trees  by  flowing  water,  to  watch  reapers 
at  their  work,  to  look  on  orchards  blossoming, 
to  dream  in  the  silence  that  lies  amid  the  hills, 
to  feel  the  solemn  loneliness  of  deep  woods,  to 
follow  cattle  as  they  crop  the  sweet-scented 
clover,  —  to   learn    to    know,    as    one   knows   a 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  35 

mother's  face,  every  change  that  comes  over  the 
heavens  from  the  dewy  freshness  of  early  dawn 
to  the  restful  calm  of  evening,  from  the  over- 
powering mystery  of  the  starlit  sky  to  the  tender 
human  look  with  which  the  moon  smiles  upon 
the  earth,  —  all  this  is  education  of  a  higher 
and  altogether  more  real  kind  than  it  is  pos- 
sible to  receive  within  the  walls  of  a  school ; 
and  lacking  this,  nothing  shall  have  power  to 
develop  the  faculties  of  the  soul  in  symmetry  and 
completeness.  Hence  a  philosopher  has  said 
there  are  ten  thousand  chances  to  one  that 
genius,  talent,  and  virtue  shall  issue  from  a  farm- 
house rather  than  from  a  palace.  The  daily  in- 
tercourse with  Nature  in  childhood  and  youth 
intertwines  with  noble  and  enduring  objects  the 
passions  which  form  the  mind  and  heart  of  man, 
whereas  those  who  are  shut  out  from  such  com- 
munion are  necessarily  thrown  into  contact  with 
what  is  mean  and  vulgar;  and  since  our  early 
years,  whatever  our  surroundings  may  have 
been,  seem  to  us  sweet  and  fair  because  life  it- 
self is  then  a  clear-flowing  fountain,  they  cannot 
help  blending  the  memory  of  that  innocent  and 
happy  time  with  thoughts  of  base  and  mechani- 
cal objects,  or,  it  may  be,  of  low  and  ignoble 
associates. 

He  is  fortunate  who,  during  the  first  ten  years 
of  his  life,  escapes  the  confinement  and  repres- 


36      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

sion  of  school,  and  lives  at  home  in  the  country 
amid  the  fields  and  the  woods,  day  by  day 
growing  familiar  with  the  look  on  Nature's  face, 
with  all  her  moods,  with  every  common  object, 
with  living  things  in  the  air  and  the  water  and 
on  the  earth;  who  sees  the  corn  sprout,  and 
watches  it  grow  week  after  week  until  the  yellow 
harvest  waves  in  the  sunlight;  who  looks  wnth 
unawed  eye  on  rising  thunder-clouds  and  shouts 
with  glee  amid  the  lightning's  play;  who  learns 
to  know  that  whatever  he  looks  upon  is  thereby 
humanized,  and  to  feel  that  he  is  part  of  all  he 
sees  and  loves.  He  will  carry  with  him  to  the 
study  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  world  of 
men's  thoughts  shut  up  in  books,  a  strength  of 
mind,  a  depth  and  freshness  of  heart  which  only 
those  can  own  who  have  drunk  at  Nature's  deep 
flowing  fountain,  and  come  up  to  life's  training- 
course  wet  with  her  dews  and  with  the  fragrance 
of  her  flowers  on  their  breath.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  old  Greeks,  who  first  made  education  a 
science,  the  scholar  was  an  idler,  —  one  who  had 
leisure  to  look  about  him,  to  stroll  amid  the 
olive  groves,  to  let  his  eye  rest  upon  the  purple 
hills  or  the  blue  sea  studded  with  green  isles,  to 
listen  to  the  brooks  and  the  nightingales,  to  read 
the  lesson  the  fair  earth  teaches  more  than  that 
imprinted  on  parchment;  and  the  school  must 
still    preserve  something  of  this  freedom  from 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  37 

constraint,  must  encourage  the  play  of  body 
and  of  mind,  the  delight  natural  to  the  young  in 
the  exercise  of  strength  of  whatever  kind,  and 
thus  as  far  as  possible  lighten  the  labor  and 
drudgery  of  elementary  studies  with  thoughts  of 
liberty,  of  beauty,  and  of  excellence.  Let  the 
boy  feel  how  good  it  is  to  be  alive  though  life 
meant  only  the  narrow  world  and  the  mere  sur- 
faces of  things  with  which  alone  it  is  possible 
for  him  to  be  acquainted ;  and  then  when  we 
ask  him  to  believe  that  in  high  thinking  and  in 
noble  acting  he  will  find  a  life  infinitely  more 
worthy,  his  eager  soul  will  be  inflamed  with  a 
desire  for  knowledge  and  virtue,  and  bearing  in 
his  heart  the  strength  and  wealth  of  imagination 
gained  from  his  early  experience,  his  thoughts 
will  turn  to  great  and  good  men.  Dim  visions  of 
mighty  conquerors,  of  poets  at  whose  song  the 
woods  and  waves  grow  calm,  of  orators  whose 
words  with  stormlike  force,  whatever  way  they 
take,  sweep  with  them  the  wills  of  men,  —  will  rise 
before  his  mind.  His  young  fancy  will  endow 
them  wnth  preternatural  qualities;  and  he  will 
yearn  to  draw  near,  to  mingle  with  them  and  to 
catch  the  secret  of  their  divine  power.  The 
germ  of  the  godlike  within  his  bosom  bursts 
and  springs.  What  they  were,  why  may  not  he 
also  become?  What  bars  are  thrown  athwart 
his   path,  what  obstacles    hem  his  way,  which, 


38      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

whoever  in  any  age  has  excelled,  has  not  had  to 
break  down  and  surmount?  Here  the  wise 
teacher  conies  to  cheer  him,  to  tell  him  his  faith 
is  not  wrong,  his  hope  not  without  promise  of 
attainment  if  he  but  trust  himself,  and  bend  his 
whole  mind  to  the  task;  that  whatever  goal 
within  the  scope  of  human  power,  the  will  sets 
to  itself,  it  may  reach. 

In  order  to  develop,  strengthen,  and  con- 
firm this  high  mood,  this  noble  temper,  let  him 
by  all  means  be  made  acquainted  with  the  lan- 
guage and  genius  of  Greece.  Here  he  will  be 
introduced  to  a  world  of  thought  and  senti- 
ment almost  as  fresh,  as  fair  and  many-sided 
as  Nature  herself,  —  the  fragrant  blossoming  in 
myriad  hues  and  forins  of  the  life  and  mind  of 
the  most  richly  endowed  portion  of  the  human 
race.  Not  only  are  the  Greeks  the  most  highly- 
gifted  of  all  people,  but  in  this  classical  age 
they  have  also  this  special  charm  and  power, 
—  that  the  keenest  intellectual  faculties  are  in 
them  united  with  the  feelings,  hopes,  and  fan- 
cies of  a  noble  and  great-hearted  youth.  Even 
Socrates  and  Plato  talk  like  high-souled  boys 
who  can  see  the  world  only  in  the  light  of 
ideals,  for  whom  what  the  mind  beholds  and  the 
heart  loves  is  alone  real.  How  healthfully  they 
look  on  life,  with  what  delight  they  breathe  the 
air !      What   fine    contempt   have    they   not  of 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  39 

death,  thinking  no  fortune  so  good  as  that 
which  comes  to  the  hero  who  dies  in  a  worthy 
cause !  There  is  Athens,  already  the  world's 
university;  but  no  books,  no  hbraries,  no  lec- 
ture-halls, only  great  teachers  who  walk  about 
followed  by  a  crowd  of  youths  eager  to  drink 
in  their  words.  Here  is  the  Acropolis,  with  its 
snow-white  temples  and  propylaeum,  fair  and 
chaste  as  though  they  had  been  built  in  heaven 
and  gently  lowered  to  this  Attic  mound  by  the 
hands  of  angels.  There  in  the  Parthenon  are 
the  sculptures  of  Phidias,  and  yonder  in  the 
temple  of  the  Dioscuri,  the  paintings  of  Polyg- 
notus,  —  ideal  beauty  bodied  forth  to  lure  the 
souls  of  men  to  unseen  and  eternal  worlds.  If 
they  turn  to  the  east,  the  isles  of  the  ^gean 
look  up  to  them  like  virgins  who  welcome 
happy  lovers;  to  the  west,  Mount  Pentelicus, 
from  whose  heart  the  architectural  glory  of  the 
city  has  been  carved,  bids  them  think  what  pa- 
tience will  enable  man's  genius  to  accomplish; 
and  to  the  north,  Hymettus,  fragrant  with  the 
breath  of  a  thousand  herbs  and  musical  with 
the  hum  of  bees,  stoops  with  gentle  undulations 
to  their  feet.  They  live  in  the  air;  their  temples 
are  open  to  the  sunlight;  their  theatres  are  un- 
covered to  the  heavens  ;  and  whithersoever  they 
move,  they  are  surrounded  by  what  is  fair,  noble, 
and  inspiring.     This  free  and  happy  life  in  the 


40      EDUCATION-  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

company  of  great  teachers  becomes  the  stimu- 
lus to  the  keenest  exercise  of  mind.  They  are 
as  eager  to  see  things  in  a  true  light  as  they 
are  quick  to  sympathize  with  whatever  is  heroic 
or  beautiful;  and  all  their  talk  is  of  truth  and 
justice,  the  good,  the  fair,  the  excellent,  of 
philosophy,  religion,  poetry,  and  art,  and  of 
whatever  else  seems  favorable  to  human  life  and 
to  the  development  of  ideal  manhood.  Of  the 
merely  useful  they  have  the  scorn  of  young 
and  inexperienced  minds  ;  and  Hippocrates  pro- 
claims himself  ready  to  give  Protagoras,  not 
only  whatever  he  himself  possesses,  but  also  the 
property  of  his  friends,  if  he  will  but  teach  him 
wisdom.  Superior  knowledge  was  to  them  of 
all  things  the  most  admirable  and  the  most  to 
be  desired.  What  noble  thoughts  have  they  not 
concerning  education?  "  An  intelligent  man," 
says  Plato,  "  will  prize  those  studies  which  result 
in  his  soul  getting  soberness,  righteousness,  and 
wisdom,  and  will  less  value  the  others."  The 
culture  of  the  mind  is  made  a  kind  of  religion, 
in  the  spreading  of  which  the  personal  influence 
of  the  teacher  is  not  less  active  than  the  truths 
he  sets  forth.  Bonds  of  affection  bind  the  disci- 
ple to  the  master  whose  words  have  for  him 
the  sacredness  of  wisdom  and  the  charm  of 
genius,  power  to  confirm  the  will,  and  warmth 
and  color  whereby  the  imagination  is  raised. 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  4 1 

This  secret  of  making  knowledge  attractive, 
of  clothing  truth  in  chaste  and  beautiful  lan- 
guage, of  associating  it  with  whatever  is  fair  and 
noble  in  Nature,  and  of  relating  it  to  life  and 
conduct,  which  is  part  of  the  genius  of  Greece, 
still  lives  in  her  literature ;  and  to  read  the 
words  of  her  poets,  orators,  and  philosophers 
is  to  feel  the  presence  of  a  high  and  active 
spirit,  is  to  breathe  in  an  intellectual  atmosphere 
of  light  and  liberty,  is  of  itself  enlargement  and 
cultivation  of  mind.  Hence,  in  the  realms  of 
thought,  the  Greeks  are  the  civilizers  and  eman- 
cipators of  the  world ;  and  whoever  thinks,  is  to 
some  extent  their  debtor.  The  music  of  their 
eloquence  and  poetry  can  never  grow  silent; 
the  forms  of  beauty  their  genius  has  created  can 
never  perish,  and  never  cease  to  win  the  admi- 
ration and  love  of  noble  minds  and  gentle 
hearts,  or  to  be  the  inspiration,  generation  after 
generation,  to  high  thoughts  and  heroic  moods. 
So  long  as  glory,  beauty,  freedom,  light,  and 
gladness  shall  seem  good  and  fair,  so  long  will 
the  finer  spirits  of  the  world  feel  the  attraction 
and  the  charm  of  Greece,  and  know  the  sweet 
surprise  which  thrilled  the  heart  of  Keats  when 
first  he  read  Homer:  — 

"  Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken, 
Or  like  stout  Cortez  when  with  eagle  eyes 


42      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

He  stared  at  the  Pacific,  and  all  his  men 
Looked  at  each  other  with  a  wild  surmise, 
Silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien." 

In  a  less  degree,  Roman  literature,  which  is 
the  offspring  of  Greek  culture,  has  value  as  an 
intellectual  stimulus  and  discipline.  Here  also 
the  youthful  mind  is  brought  into  the  presence 
of  a  great  and  noble  people,  who,  if  they  have 
less  genius  and  a  duller  sense  of  beauty  than  the 
Greeks,  excel  them  in  steadiness  of  purpose,  in 
dignity  of  character,  in  reverence  for  law  and 
religion,  and  above  all  in  the  art  of  governing. 

The  educational  value  of  the  classics  does  not 
lie  so  much  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages 
as  in  the  type  of  mind,  the  sense  of  proportion 
and  beauty,  the  heroic  temper,  the  philosophic 
mood,  the  keen  relish  for  high  enterprise,  and 
the  joyful  love  of  life  which  they  make  known 
to  us.  The  world  to  which  they  introduce  us  is 
so  remote  that  the  pre-occupations  and  vulgar- 
ities of  the  present,  by  which  we  all  are  hemmed 
and  warped,  fall  away  from  us ;  and  it  is  at  the 
same  time  so  real  and  of  such  absorbing  interest 
that  we  are  caught  up  in  spirit  and  carried  to 
the  Attic  Plain  and  the  hills  of  Latium.  They 
are  useful,  not  because  they  teach  us  anything 
that  may  not  be  learned  and  learned  more  ac- 
curately from  modern  books,  but  because  they 
move    the    mind,   fire    the    heart,    ennoble    and 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND. 


43 


refine  the  imagination  in  a  way  which  nothing 
else  has  power  to  do.  They  are  sources  of  in- 
spiration; they  first  roused  the  modern  mind 
to  activity;  and  the  potency  of  their  influence 
can  never  cease  to  be  felt  by  those  whose  apti- 
tudes lead  them  to  the  love  of  intellectual  per- 
fection,  who  delight  in  the  free  play  of  the 
mind,  who  are  attracted  by  what  is  symmetrical, 
who  have  the  instinct  for  beauty,  who  swim  in  a 
current  of  ideas  as  naturally  as  birds  fly  in  the 
air.  They  appeal  to  the  mind  as  a  whole,  stim- 
ulate all  its  faculties,  awaken  a  many-sided 
sympathy  both  with  Nature  and  with  the  world 
of  men.  They  widen  our  view  of  life,  bring 
forth  in  us  the  consciousness  of  our  kinship 
with  the  human  race,  and  of  the  application  to 
ourselves,  however  common  and  uninspiring  our 
surroundings  may  be,  of  the  best  thoughts  and 
noblest  deeds  which  have  ever  sprung  from  the 
brain  and  heart  of  man.  They  help  to  make 
one,  again  to  quote  Plato,  "  A  lover,  not  of  a 
part  of  wisdom,  but  of  the  whole ;  who  has  a 
taste  for  every  sort  of  knowledge,  and  is  curious 
to  learn  and  is  never  satisfied;  who  has  mag- 
nificence of  mind,  and  is  a  spectator  of  all  time 
and  all  existence ;  who  is  harmoniously  consti- 
tuted, of  a  well-proportioned  and  gracious 
mind,  whose  own  nature  will  move  spontaneously 
toward  the  true  being  of  everything;   who  has 


44      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

a  good  memory,  and  is  quick  to  learn,  noble, 
gracious,  the  friend  of  truth,  justice,  courage, 
temperance."  The  ideal  presented  is  that  of 
complete  harmonious  culture,  the  aim  of  which 
is  not  to  make  an  artisan,  a  physician,  a  mer- 
chant, a  lawyer,  but  a  man  alive  in  all  his  fac- 
ulties, touching  the  world  at  many  points,  for 
whom  all  knowledge  is  desirable,  all  beauty 
lovable,  and  for  whom  fine  bearing  and  noble 
acting  are  indispensable. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  in  what,  or  why,  the 
Greeks  failed,  since  here  there  is  question  only 
of  intellectual  life,  and  in  this  they  did  not  fail. 
Nor  is  there  any  thought,  in  what  has  here  been 
said,  of  depreciating  the  worth  of  the  study  of 
science,  without  a  certain  knowledge  of  which 
no  one,  in  this  age,  can  in  any  true  sense, 
be  called  educated.  Whoever,  indeed,  learns  a 
language  properly,  acquires  scientific  knowl- 
edge ;  and  the  Greeks  are  not  only  the  masters 
in  poetry  and  eloquence,  they  are  also  the 
guides  to  the  right  use  of  reason  and  to  scien- 
tific method,  and  the  teachers  of  mathematics, 
logic,  and  physics.  He  who  pursues  culture,  in 
the  Greek  spirit,  who  desires  to  see  things  as 
they  are,  to  know  the  best  that  has  been  thought 
and  done  by  men,  will  fear  nothing  so  much 
as  the  exclusion  of  any  truth,  and  he  will  be 
anxious  to  acquaint  himself  not  only  with  the 


EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  45 

method,  but  as  far  as  possible  with  the  facts,  of 
physical  science.  Still  he  perceives  that  how- 
ever great  the  value  of  natural  knowledge  may- 
be, it  is,  as  an  instrument  of  culture,  inferior  to 
literature.  We  are  educated  by  what  calls  forth 
in  us  love  and  admiration,  by  what  creates  the 
exalted  mood  and  the  steadfast  purpose.  In 
bowing  with  reverence  to  what  is  above  us,  we 
are  uplifted.  When  we  are  moved,  we  are  more 
alive;  we  are  stronger,  tenderer,  nobler.  Now 
to  look  upon  Nature  with  the  detective  eye  of 
the  man  of  science  is  to  be  cold  and  unsympa- 
thetic ;  to  learn  by  methodic  experiment  Is  to 
gain  knowledge,  which,  since  it  is  only  remotely 
or  indirectly  related  to  life,  is  but  little  inter- 
esting. Such  knowledge  is  a  fragment,  and  a 
fragment  extremely  difficult  to  fit  into  the  tem- 
ple built  by  thought  and  love,  by  hope  and 
imagination ;  and  hence  when  we  have  learned  a 
great  deal  about  chemical  elements,  geologic 
epochs,  correlation  of  forces,  and  sidereal  spaces, 
we  are  rather  astonished  than  enlightened.  We 
are  brought  into  the  presence  of  a  world  which 
is  not  that  of  the  senses,  nor  yet  that  which 
faith,  hope,  and  love  forebode ;  and  the  bearing 
it  may  have  upon  human  life  is  of  more  interest 
to  us  than  the  facts  made  known.  We  are,  in- 
deed, curious  to  know  whatever  may,  with  any 
certainty,  be  told  us  of  atoms  and  biogenesis; 


46      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

but  our  real  concern  is  to  learn  what  signifi- 
cance such  truth  may  have  in  its  relation  to 
questions  of  God  and  the  soul. 

There  is  doubtless  a  disciplinary  value  in  the 
study  of  physical  science.  It  trains  the  mind 
to  habits  of  patient  attention,  of  careful  obser- 
vation, teaches  the  danger  of  hasty  generaliza- 
tion, and  diminishes  intellectual  conceit;  but 
these  results  may  also  be  obtained  by  other 
means.  The  aim  of  education  is  not  simply 
to  develop  this  or  the  other  faculty,  however 
indispensable,  nor  yet  to  make  one  thoroughly 
conversant  with  a  particular  order  of  facts,  but 
the  aim  is  to  bring  about  a  conscious  participa- 
tion in  the  life  of  the  race,  to  evoke  all  the 
powers  of  man,  so  that  his  whole  being  shall  be 
quickened  and  made  responsive  to  the  touch  of 
things  seen  and  unseen  ;  and  the  study  of  science 
is  less  adapted  to  the  attainment  of  this  end 
than  the  study  of  human  letters.  The  scientific 
temper  draws  to  specialties  ;  and  specialists  are 
narrow,  are  incomplete.  They,  each  in  his  own 
line,  do  good  work,  and  are  the  chief  agents  for 
the  increase  of  natural  knowledge,  and  are,  we 
may  grant,  leaders  in  every  kind  of  improve- 
ment; but  like  the  operatives  who  provide 
our  comforts  and  luxuries,  they  are  themselves 
warped  and  crippled  by  what  they  do.  The 
habit  of  looking  at  a  single  order  of  facts,  coldly 


EXERCISE  OF  MIND.  47 

and  always  from  the  same  point  of  view,  takes 
from  the  mind  flexibihty,  weakens  the  imagina- 
tion, and  puts  fetters  on  the  soul ;  and  hence 
though  it  is  important  that  there  be  specialists, 
the  kind  of  education  by  which  they  are  formed, 
while  it  is  suited  to  make  a  geologist,  a  chemist, 
a  mathematician,  or  a  botanist,  is  not  suited  to 
call  forth  the  free  and  harmonious  play  of  all 
man's  powers.  We  do  not  live  on  facts  alone, 
much  less  on  facts  of  a  single  kind.  Religion 
and  poetry,  love,  hope,  and  imagination  are  as 
essential  to  our  well-being  as  science.  Human 
^  life  is  knowledge,  is  faith,  is  conduct,  1^  beauty, 
is  manners ;  it  unfolds  itself  in  many  directions 
and  shoots  its  roots  into  infinitude ;  and  for  the 
general  purposes  of  education,  science  is  learned 
to  best  advantage  when  it  is  embodied  in  litera- 
ture, and  its  methods  and  results,  rather  than  the 
details  of  its  work,  are  presented  to  us.  What- 
ever it  is  able  to  do,  to  improve  the  mind,  to 
widen  the  range  of  thought,  to  give  true  notions 
of  the  workings  of  Nature,  — it  will  do  for  who- 
ever learns  accurately  its  general  conceptions 
and  results;  and  these  cannot  remain  unknown 
to  him  whose  aim  is  culture,  for  such  an  one  is, 
as  Plato  says,  "A  lover  not  of  a  part  of  wisdom, 
but  of  the  whole,  and  has  a  taste  for  every  sort 
of  knowledge,  and  is  curious  to  learn,  and  is 
never  satisfied ;    and  though  he  will  not  know  \ 

J 


48      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

medicine  like  a  physician,  or  tiie  heavens  Hke 
an  astronomer,  or  the  vegetable  kingdom  like  a 
botanist,  his  mind  will  play  over  all  these  realms 
with  freedom,  and  he  will  know  how  to  relate 
the  principles  and  facts  of  all  the  sciences  to 
our  sense  for  beauty,  for  conduct,  for  life  and 
religion  in  a  way  which  a  mere  specialist  can 
never  find."  And  his  view  will  not  only  be  wider 
and  less  impeded,  it  will  also  be  deeper  than 
that  of  the  man  of  science ;  for  he  who  sees  but 
one  order  of  things  sees  only  their  surfaces,  just 
as  he  who  sees  but  one  thing  sees  nothing 
at  all. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  the 
ideal  here  commended,  means  superficial  ac- 
complishments, an  excessive  love  of  style  and 
the  ornaments  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  or  pre- 
occupation in  favor  of  aught  external  or  frivo- 
lous. It  is  the  very  opposite  of  dilettanteism, 
and  if  it  mean  anything,  means  thoroughness, 
and  a  thoroughness  which  can  come  only  of 
untiring  labor  carried  on  through  many  years; 
for  time  and  intercourse  with  men  and  varied 
experience  are  indispensable  elements.  It  is 
like  the  ideal  of  religion  which  makes  the  saint 
think  himself  a  sinner ;  it  is  as  exacting  as  the 
miser's  thought  which  makes  millions  seem  to 
be  beggary;  like  the  artist's  vision,  like  the 
poet's  dream,  it  allures  and  yet  forbids  hope  of 


3 

EXERCISE   OF  MIND.  49 

attainment.  [The  seeker  after  wisdom  must 
have  a  high  purpose,  a  strong  soul,  and  the 
purest  love  of  truth.  He  cannot  live  in  the 
senses  alone,  nor  in  the  mind,  nor  in  the  heart 
alone,  but  the  spiritual  being,  which  is  himself, 
yearns  for  whatever  is  good,  whatever  is  true, 
whatever  is  fair,  and  so  he  finds  himself  akin  to 
the  infinite  God  and  to  all  that  he  has  made. 
When  his  thought  is  carried  out  to  atoms  weav- 
ing the  garment  which  is  our  body,  and  mould- 
ing the  world  we  see  and  touch ;  when  he 
beholds  motion  lighting,  warming,  thrilling  the 
universe, — he  is  filled  with  intellectual  joy,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  perceives  that  all  this  is 
but  a  phase  of  truth ;  that  God  and  the  bound- 
less facts  are  infinitely  more  than  drilled  atomics 
marshalled  rank  on  rank  until  they  form  the 
countless  hosts  of  the  heavens.  When  the  men 
of  science  have  labelled  the  elements,  and  put 
tickets  upon  all  natural  compounds,  and  with 
complacency  declare  that  this  is  the  whole  truth, 
he  looks  on  the  flowers  around  him  and  the 
blooming  children,  on  the  stars  above  his  head, 
on  the  sun  slow  wheeling  down  the  western 
horizon,  on  the  moon  climbing  some  eastern 
hill,  and  his  inmost  soul  is  glad  because  he  feels 
the  thrill  of  the  infinite,  living  Spirit,  and  fore- 
bodes to  what  fair  countries  we  are  bound. 
And  when  they  proclaim  the  wonders  science 
4 


50      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

has  wrought,  —  increase  of  physical  enjoyment 
and  social  comfort ;  the  yoking  of  lightning  and 
steam  to  make  them  work  for  man ;  the  pro- 
viding of  more  abundant  food  ;  the  building  of 
more  wholesome  dwellings ;  the  lengthening  of 
life;  temporal  benefits  of  every  kind,  —  he  joins 
with  those  who  utter  praise,  but  knows  that 
infinitely  more  than  all  this  goes  to  the  making 
of  man's  life.  So  he  turns  his  mind  in  many 
directions,  and  while  he  looks  on  the  truth  in 
science,  does  not  grow  blind  to  the  truth  in 
religion ;  while  he  knows  the  value  of  what  is 
practically  useful,  understands  also  the  priceless 
worth  of  what  is  noble  and  beautiful,  and  his 
acquaintance  with  many  kinds  of  thought,  with 
many  shades  of  opinion  confirms  him,  as  Jou- 
bert  says,  in  the  acceptance  of  the  best. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   LOVE   OF   EXCELLENCE. 

Why  is  this  glorious  creature  to  be  found 
One  only  in  ten  thousand  ?  what  one  is, 
Why  may  not  millions  be  ?  what  bars  are  thrown 
By  Nature  in  the  way  of  such  a  hope  ? 

Wordsworth. 

HE  teaches  to  good  purpose  who  inspires 
the  love  of  excellence,  and  who  sends  his 
pupils  forth  from  the  school's  narrow  walls  with 
such  desire  for  self-improvement  that  the  whole 
world  becomes  to  them  a  God-appointed  univer- 
sity. And  why  shall  not  every  youth  hope  to 
enter  the  narrow  circle  of  those  for  whom  to 
live,  is  to  think,  who  behold  "  the  bright  counte- 
nance of  truth  in  the  quiet  and  still  air  of  de- 
lightful studies."  An  enlightened  mind  is  like  a 
fair  and  pleasant  friend  who  comes  to  cheer  us 
in  every  hour  of  loneliness  and  gloom  ;  it  is  like 
noble  birth  which  admits  to  all  best  company ; 
it  is  like  wealth  which  surrounds  us  with  what- 
ever is  rarest  and  most  precious;  it  is  like  virtue 
which  lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  light  and  seren- 
ity, and  is  itself  enough  for  itself.  Whatever  our 
labors,   our  cares,  our   disappointments,   a  free 


52       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

and  open  mind,  by  holding  us  in  communion 
with  the  highest  and  the  fairest,  will  fill  the  soul 
with  strength  and  joy.  The  artist,  day  by  day, 
year  in  and  year  out,  hangs  over  his  work,  and 
finds  enough  delight  in  the  beauty  he  creates ; 
and  shall  not  the  friend  of  the  soul  be  glad  in 
striving  ceaselessly  to  make  his  knowledge  and 
his  love  less  unlike  the  knowledge  and  the  love 
of  God?  Seldom  is  opportunity  of  victory 
offered  to  great  captains,  the  orator  rarely 
finds  fit  theme  and  audience,  hardly  shall  the 
hero  meet  with  occasions  worthy  of  the  sacrifice 
of  life ;  but  he  who  labors  to  shape  his  mind  to 
the  heavenly  forms  of  truth  and  beauty  beholds 
them  ever  present  and  appealing.  Life  without 
thought  and  love  is  worthless ;  and  to  the  best 
men  and  women  belong  only  those  who  culti- 
vate with  earnestness  and  perseverance  their 
spiritual  faculties,  who  strive  daily  to  know 
more,  to  love  more,  to  be  more  beautiful.  They 
are  the  chosen  ones,  and  all  others,  even  though 
they  sit  on  thrones,  are  but  the  crowd. 

Without  a  free  and  open  mind  there  is  no 
high  and  glad  human  life.  You  may  as  well 
point  to  the  savage  drowsing  in  his  tent,  or  to 
cattle  knee-deep  in  clover,  and  bid  me  think 
them  high,  as  to  ask  me  to  admire  where  I  can 
behold  neither  intelligence  nor  love.  All  that 
we  possess  is  qualified  by  what  we  are.     Gold 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  53 

makes  not  the  miser  rich,  nor  its  lack  a  true 
man  poor;  and  he  who  has  gained  insight  into 
the  fair  truth  that  he  is  a  part  of  all  he  sees  and 
loves,  is  richer  than  kings,  and  lives  like  a  god 
in  his  universe.  Possibilities  for  us  are  meas- 
ured by  the  kind  of  work  in  which  we  put  our 
hearts.  If  a  man's  thoughts  are  wholly  busy 
with  carpentering  do  not  expect  him  to  become 
anything  else  than  a  carpenter ;  but  if  his  aim  is 
to  build  up  his  own  being,  to  make  his  mind 
luminous,  his  heart  tender  and  pure,  his  will 
steadfast,  who  but  God  shall  fix  a  limit  beyond 
which  he  may  not  hope  to  go.  Education,  in- 
deed, cannot  confer  organic  power;  but  it  alone 
gives  us  the  faculty  to  perceive  how  infinitely 
wonderful  and  fair  are  man's  endowments,  how 
boundless  his  inheritance,  how  full  of  deathless 
hope  is  that  to  which  he  may  aspire.  Religion, 
philosophy,  poetry,  science,  —  all  bring  us  into 
the  presence  of  an  ideal  of  ceaseless  growth 
toward  an  all-perfect  Infinite,  dimly  discerned 
and  unapproachable,  but  which  fascinates  the 
soul  and  haunts  the  imagination  with  its  deep 
mystery,  until  what  we  long  for  becomes  more 
real  than  all  that  we  possess,  and  yearning  is  our 
highest  happiness.  Ah !  who  would  throw  a 
veil  over  the  vision  on  which  young  eyes  rest 
when  young  hearts  feel  that  ideal  things  alone 
are  real?     Who  would  rob  them  of  this  divine 


54      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

principle  of  progress  which  makes   growth  the 
best  of  hfe? 

"  Many  are  our  joys 
In  youth ;  but  oh,  what  happiness  to  live 
When  every  hour  brings  palpable  access 
Of  knowledge,  when  all  knowledge  is  delight !  " 

In  all  ages,  we  know  those  made  wise  by 
experience,  which  teaches  us  to  expect  little, 
whether  of  ourselves  or  others,  have  made  the 
thoughts  and  hopes  of  youth  a  jest,  even  as 
men  have  made  religion  a  jest,  having  nothing 
to  offer  us  in  compensation  for  its  loss,  but 
witticisms  and  despair.  This  is  the  fatal  fault  of 
life,  that  when  we  have  obtained  what  is  good,  — 
as  wealth,  position,  wife,  and  friends,  —  we  lose 
all  hope  of  the  best,  and  with  our  mockery  dis- 
courage those  who  have  ideal  aims ;  who,  re- 
membering how  the  soul  felt  in  life's  dawn, 
retain  a  sense  of  God's  presence  in  the  world, 
to  whom  with  growing  faculties  they  aspire, 
feeling  that  whatsoever  point  they  reach,  they 
still  have  something  to  pursue.  This  is  the 
principle  of  the  diviner  mind  in  all  high  and 
heroic  natures ;  this  is  the  spring-head  of  deeds 
that  make  laws,  of  "  thoughts  that  enrich  the 
blood  of  the  world;"  this  is  the  power  which 
gives  to  resolve  the  force  of  destiny,  and  clothes 
the  soul  with  the  heavenliest  strength  and 
beauty  when  it  stands  single  and  alone,  of  men 
abandoned  and  almost  of  God. 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  55 

There  is  little  danger  that  too  many  shall 
ever  hearken  to  the  invitation  from  the  fair 
worlds  to  which  all  souls  belong,  and  where 
alone  they  can  be  luminous  and  free.  For 
centuries,  now,  what  innumerable  voices  have 
pleaded  with  men  to  make  themselves  worthy 
of  heaven ;  while  they  have  moved  on  heedless 
of  the  heaven  that  lies  about  us  here,  placing 
their  hopes  and  aims  in  material  and  perishable 
elements,  athirst  neither  for  truth,  nor  beauty, 
nor  aught  that  is  divinely  good !  They  sleep, 
they  wake,  they  eat,  they  drink;  they  tread 
the  beaten  path  with  ceaseless  iteration,  and  so 
they  die.  If  one  come  appealing  for  culture 
of  intellect,  not  because  they  who  know,  are 
stronger  than  the  ignorant  and  make  them  their 
servants,  but  because  an  open,  free,  and  flexible 
mind  is  good  and  fair,  better  than  birth,  posi- 
tion, and  wealth,  they  turn  away  as  though  he 
trifled  with  their  common-sense.  Life,  they  say, 
is  not  for  knowledge,  but  knowledge  for  life ;  and 
they  neither  truly  know,  nor  live.  And  if  here 
and  there  some  nobler  soul  stand  forth,  he  de- 
grades himself  to  an  aspirant  to  fame,  forgetting 
truth  and  love. 

Enough  there  are  on  earth  who  reap  and  sow, 
Enough  who  give  their  lives  to  common  gain, 
Enough  who  toil  with  spade  and  axe  and  plane, 
Enough  who  sail  the  seas  where  rude  winds  blow  ; 


56       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

Enough  who  make  their  life  unmeaning  show, 
Enough  who  plead  in  courts,  who  physic  pain ; 
Enough  who  follow  in  the  lover's  train, 
And  taste  of  wedded  hearts  the  bliss  and  woe. 

A  few  at  least  may  love  the  poet's  song. 

May  walk  with  him,  their  visionary  guide, 

Far  from  the  crowd,  nor  do  the  world  a  wrong; 

Or  on  his  wings  through  deep  blue  skies  may  glide 

And  float,  by  light  transfused,  like  clouds  along 

Above  the  earth  and  over  oceans  wide. 

With  unresting,  wearing  thought  and  labor 
we  are  striving  to  make  earth  more  habitable. 
We  drag  forth  from  its  inner  parts  whatever 
treasures  are  hidden  there;  with  steam's  mighty 
force  we  mould  brute  matter  into  every  fair 
and  serviceable  form ;  we  build  great  cities,  we 
spread  the  fabric  of  our  trade ;  the  engine's  iron 
heart  goes  throbbing  through  tunnelled  moun- 
tains and  over  storm-swept  seas  to  bear  us  and 
our  wealth  to  all  regions  of  the  globe ;  we  talk 
to  one  another  from  city  to  city,  and  from  con- 
tinent to  continent  along  ocean's  oozy  depths 
the  lightning  flashes  our  words,  spreading  be- 
neath our  eyes  each  morning  the  whole  world's 
gossip,  —  but  in  the  midst  of  this  miraculous 
transformation,  we  ourselves  remain  small,  hard, 
and  narrow,  without  great  thoughts  or  great 
loves  or  immortal  hopes.  We  are  a  crowd 
where  the  highest  and  the  best  lose  individual- 
ity, and  are  swept  along  as  though  democracy 


THE  LOVE  OF  EXCELLENCE.  57 

were  a  tyranny  of  the  average  man  under  which 
superiority  of  whatever  kind  is  criminal.  Our 
population  increases,  our  cities  grow,  our  roads 
are  lengthened,  our  machinery  is  made  more 
perfect,  the  number  of  our  schools  is  multi- 
plied, our  newspapers  are  read  in  ever-widen- 
ing circles,  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  of 
freedom  breathes  through  our  life;  but  the  in- 
dividual remains  common-place  and  uninterest- 
ing. He  lacks  intelligence,  has  no  perception 
of  what  is  excellent,  no  faith  in  ideals,  no  rever- 
ence for  genius,  no  belief  in  any  highest  sort 
of  man  who  has  not  shown  his  worth  in  win- 
ning wealth,  position,  or  notoriety.  We  have 
a  thousand  poets  and  no  poetry,  a  thousand 
orators  and  no  eloquence,  a  thousand  philoso- 
phers and  no  philosophy.  Every  city  points  to 
its  successful  men  who  have  millions,  but  are 
themselves  poor  and  unintelligent;  to  its  writers 
who,  having  sold  their  talent  to  newspapers  and 
magazines,  sink  to  the  level  of  those  they  ad- 
dress, dealing  only  with  what  is  of  momentary 
interest,  or  if  the  question  be  deep,  they  move 
on  the  surface,  lest  the  many-eyed  crowd  lose 
sight  of  them.  The  preacher  gets  an  audience 
and  pay  on  condition  that  he  stoop  to  the  gos- 
sip which  centres  around  new  theories,  startling 
events,  and  mechanical  schemes  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  country.     If  to  get  money  be 


58       EDUCATION'  AND  THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

the  end  of  writing  and  preaching,  then  must 
we  seek  to  please  the  multitude  who  are  willing 
to  pay  those  who  entertain  and  amuse  them. 
Will  not  our  friends,  even,  conceive  a  mean 
opinion  of  our  ability,  if  we  fail  to  gain  public 
recognition? 

So  we  make  ourselves  "  motleys  to  the  view, 
and  sell  cheap  what  is  most  dear."  We  must, 
perforce,  show  the  endowment  which  can  be 
brought  to  perfection  only  if  it  be  permitted  to 
grow  in  secrecy  and  solitude.  The  worst  foe  of 
excellence  is  the  desire  to  appear;  for  when 
once  we  have  made  men  talk  of  us,  we  seem  to 
be  doing  nothing  if  they  are  silent,  and  thus 
the  love  of  notoriety  becomes  the  bane  of  true 
work  and  right  living.  To  be  one  of  a  crowd  is 
not  to  be  at  all ;  and  if  we  are  resolved  to  put 
our  thoughts  and  acts  to  the  test  of  reason,  and 
to  live  for  what  is  permanently  true  and  great, 
we  must  consent,  like  the  best  of  all  ages,  to  be 
lonely  in  the  world.  All  life,  except  the  life  of 
thought  and  love,  is  dull  and  superficial.  The 
young  love  for  a  while,  and  are  happy ;  a  few 
think ;  and  for  the  rest  existence  is  but  the 
treadmill  of  monotonous  sensation.  There  are 
but  few,  who,  through  work  and  knowledge, 
through  faith  and  hope  and  love,  seek  to  escape 
from  the  narrowness  and  misery  of  life  to  the 
summits  of  thought  where  the  soul  breathes  a 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  59 

purer  air,  and  whence  is  seen  the  fairer  world 
the  multitude  forebodes.  There  are  but  few 
whose  life  is 

"  Effort  and  expectation  and  desire, 
And  something  evermore  about  to  be  ;  " 

but  few  who  understand  how  much  the  destiny 
of  Man  hangs  upon  single  persons  ;  but  few  who 
feel  that  what  they  love  and  teach,  millions 
must  know  and  lov^e. 

"  A  people  is  but  the  attempt  of  many 
To  rise  to  the  completer  life  of  one ; 
And  those  who  live  as  models  for  the  mass 
Are  singly  of  more  value  than  them  all." 

Only  the  noblest  souls  awaken  within  us  divine 
aspirations.  They  are  the  music,  the  poetry, 
which  warms  and  illumines  whole  generations ; 
they  are  the  few  who,  born  with  rich  endow- 
ments, by  ceaseless  labor  develop  their  powers 
until  they  become  capable  of  work  which,  were 
it  not  for  them,  could  not  be  done  at  all.  His- 
tory is  the  biography  of  aristocrats,  of  the  chosen 
ones  with  whom  all  improvement  originates, 
who  found  States,  establish  civilizations,  create 
literatures,  and  teach  wisdom.  They  work  not 
for  themselves ;  for  in  spite  of  human  selfish- 
ness and  the  personal  aims  of  the  ambitious,  the 
poet,  the  scholar,  and  the  statesman  bless  the 
world.     They  lead  us  through  happy  isles ;  they 


6o       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

clothe  our  thoughts  and  hopes  with  beauty  and 
with  strength  ;  they  dissipate  the  general  gloom  ; 
they  widen  the  sphere  of  life  ;  they  bring  the 
multitude  beneath  the  sway  of  law. 

Now,  here  in  America,  once  for  all,  whatever 
the  thoughtless  may  imagine,  we  have  lost  faith 
in  the  worth  of  artificial  distinctions.  Indeed 
plausible  arguments  may  be  found  to  prove  that 
the  kind  of  man  democracy  tends  to  form,  has 
no  reverence  for  distinctions  of  whatever  kind, 
and  is  without  ideals,  and  that  as  he  is  envious 
of  men  made  by  money,  so  he  looks  with  the 
contempt  of  unenlightened  common-sense  upon 
those  whom  character  and  intellect  raise  above 
him.  This  is  not  truth.  The  higher  you  lift 
the  mass,  the  more  will  they  acknowledge  and 
appreciate  worth,  the  clearer  will  they  see  that 
what  makes  man  human,  beautiful,  and  benefi- 
cent is  conduct  and  intelligence;  and  so  in- 
creasing enlightenment  will  turn  thought  and 
admiration  from  position  and  wealth,  from  the 
pomp  and  show  of  life  to  what  makes  a  man's 
self,  his  character,  his  mind,  his  manners  even,  — 
for  the  source  of  manners  lies  within  uSo  In  a 
society  like  ours,  the  chosen  ones,  the  best,  the 
models  of  life,  and  the  leaders  of  thought  will 
be  distinguished  from  the  crowd  not  by  acci- 
dent or  circumstance,  but  by  inner  strength  and 
beauty,  by  finer  knowledge,  by  purer  love,  by 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  6 1 

a  deeper  faith  in  God,  by  a  more  steadfast  trust 
that  it  must,  and  shall  be,  well  with  a  world 
which  God  makes  and  rules,  and  which  to  the 
fairest  mind  is  fairest,  and  to  the  holiest  soul 
most  sacred. 

Here  and  now,  if  ever  anywhere  at  any  time, 
there  is  need  of  men,  there  is  appeal  to  what  is 
godlike  in  man,  calling  upon  us  to  rise  above 
our  prosperities,  our  politics,  our  mechanical 
aims  and  implements,  and  to  turn  the  courage, 
energy,  and  practical  sense  which  have  wrought 
•with  miraculous  power  in  developing  the  material 
resources  of  America,  to  the  cultivation  of  our 
spiritual  faculties.  We  alone  of  the  great  mod- 
ern nations  are  without  classical  writers  of  our 
own,  without  a  national  literature.  The  thought 
and  love  of  this  people,  its  philosophy,  poetry, 
and  art  lies  yet  in  the  bud;  and  our  tens  of 
thousands  of  books,  even  the  better  sort,  must 
perish  to  enrich  the  soil  that  nourishes  a  life  of 
heavenly  promise.  Hitherto  we  have  been  sad 
imitators  of  the  English,  but  not  the  best  the 
English  have  done  will  satisfy  America.  Their 
language  indeed  will  remain  ours,  and  their  men 
of  genius,  above  all  their  poets,  will  enrich  our 
minds  with  great  thoughts  nobly  expressed. 
But  a  literature  is  a  national  growth;  it  is  the 
expression  of  a  people's  life  and  character,  the 
more  or  less  perfect  utterance  of  what  it  loves, 


62       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

aims  at,  believes  in,  hopes  for ;  it  has  the  quali- 
ties and  the  defects  of  the  national  spirit;  it 
bears  the  marks  of  the  thousand  influences  that 
help  to  make  that  spirit  what  it  is,  —  and  English 
literature  cannot  be  American  literature,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  Americans  are  not  English- 
men, any  more  than  they  are  Germans  or 
Frenchmen.  We  must  be  ourselves  in  our 
thinking  and  writing,  as  in  our  living,  or  be  in- 
significant, for  it  is  a  man's  life  that  gives  mean- 
ing to  his  thought;  and  to  write  as  a  disciple  is 
to  write  in  an  inferior  way,  since  the  mind  at  its 
best  is  illumined  by  truth  itself  and  not  taught 
by  the  words  of  another.  It  is  not  to  be  believed 
that  this  great,  intelligent,  yearning  American 
world  will  content  itself  with  the  trick  and  man- 
nerism of  foreign  accent  and  style,  or  that  those 
who  build  on  any  other  than  the  broad  founda- 
tion of  our  own  national  life  shall  be  accepted 
as  teachers  and  guides.  There  is,  of  course,  no 
method  known  to  man  by  which  a  great  author 
may  be  formed ;  no  science  which  teaches  how 
a  literature  may  be  created.  The  men  who 
have  written  what  the  world  will  not  permit  to 
die  have  written  generally  without  any  clear 
knowledge  of  the  worth  of  their  work,  just  as 
great  discoverers  and  inventors  seem  to  stumble 
on  what  they  seek ;  nevertheless  one  may  hope 
by  right  endeavor  to  make  himself  capable  of 


THE  LOVE  OF  EXCELLENCE.  63 

uttering  true  thoughts  so  that  they  shall  become 
intelHgible  and  attractive  to  others;  he  may 
educate  himself  to  know  and  love  the  best  that 
has  been  spoken  and  written  by  men  of  genius, 
and  so  become  a  power  to  lift  the  aims  and 
enlarge  the  views  of  his  fellow-men.  If  many 
strive  in  this  way  to  unfold  their  gifts  and  to 
cultivate  their  faculties,  their  influence  will  finally 
pervade  the  life  and  thought  of  thousands,  and 
it  may  be  of  the  whole  people. 

I  do  not  at  all  forget  Aristotle's  saying  that 
"  life  is  practice  and  not  theory ;  "  that  men  are 
born  to  do  and  suffer,  and  not  to  dream  and 
weave  systems ;  that  conduct  and  not  culture 
is  the  basis  of  character  and  the  source  of 
strength ;  that  a  knowledge  of  Nature  is  of 
vastly  more  importance  to  our  material  comfort 
and  progress  than  philosophy,  poetry,  and  art. 
This  is  not  to  be  called  in  question;  but  in  this 
country  and  age  it  seems  hardly  necessary  that 
it  be  emphasized,  for  what  is  the  whole  world 
insisting  upon  but  the  necessity  of  scientific  in- 
struction, the  importance  of  practical  education, 
the  cultivation  of  the  money-getting  faculty  and 
habit,  and  the  futility  of  philosophy,  poetry, 
and  art?  Who  is  there  that  denies  the  worth  of 
what  is  useful?  Where  is  there  one  who  does 
not  approve  and  encourage  whatever  brings  in- 
crease   of  wealth?     Are   we   not   all    ready  to 


&4      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

applaud  projects  which  give  promise  of  pro- 
viding more  abundant  food,  better  clothing,  and 
more  healthful  surrounding  for  the  poor?  Does 
not  our  national  genius  seem  to  lie  altogether  in 
the  line  of  what  is  practically  useful?  Is  it  not 
our  boast  and  our  great  achievement  that  we 
have  in  a  single  century  made  the  wilderness  of 
a  vast  continent  habitable,  have  so  ploughed 
and  drained  and  planted  and  built  that  it  can 
now  easily  maintain  hundreds  of  millions  in 
gluttonous  plenty?  Is  not  our  whole  social  and 
political  organization  of  a  kind  which  fits  us  to 
deal  with  questions  and  affairs  that  concern  our 
temporal  and  material  welfare?  What  innumer- 
able individuals  among  us  are  congressmen, 
legislators,  supervisors,  bank  and  school  direc- 
tors, presidents  of  boards  and  companies,  com- 
mittee-men, councilmen,  heads  of  lodges  and 
societies,  lawyers,  professors,  teachers,  editors, 
colonels,  generals,  judges,  party-leaders,  so  that 
the  sovereign  people  seems  to  have  life  and 
being  only  in  its  titled  representatives !  What 
does  this  universal  reign  of  title  and  office 
mean  but  the  practical  education  which  re- 
sponsibility gives?  If  from  the  midst  of  this 
paradise  of  utility,  materialism,  and  business,  a 
voice  is  raised  to  plead  for  culture,  for  intelli- 
gence, for  beauty,  for  philosophy,  poetry,  and 
art,   why   need    any   one    take    alarm?      While 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  65 

human  nature  remains  what  it  is,  can  there  be 
danger  that  the  many  will  be  drawn  away  from 
what  appeals  to  the  senses,  to  what  the  soul 
loves  and  yearns  for?  If  the  Almighty  God 
does  not  win  the  multitude  to  the  love  of  right- 
eousness and  wisdom,  how  shall  the  words  of 
man  prevail? 

It  is  a  mistake  to  oppose  use  to  beauty,  the 
serviceable  to  the  excellent,  since  they  belong 
together.  Beauty  is  the  blossom  that  makes 
the  fruit-tree  fair  and  fragrant.  Life  means 
more  than  meat  and  drink,  house  and  cloth- 
ing. To  live  is  also  to  admire,  to  love,  to  lose 
one's  self  in  the  contemplation  of  the  splendor 
with  which  Nature  is  clothed.  Human  life  is 
the  marriage  of  souls  with  things  of  light.  Its 
basis,  aim,  and  end  is  love,  and  love  makes  its 
object  beautiful.  Man  may  not  even  consent  to 
eat,  except  with  decency  and  grace ;  he  must 
have  light  and  flowers  and  the  rippling  music  of 
kindly  speech,  that  as  far  as  possible  he  may 
forget  that  his  act  is  merely  animal  and  useful. 
He  will  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  clothing  is 
intended  for  protection  and  comfort,  rather  than 
not  dress  to  make  himself  beautiful.  To  speak 
merely  to  be  understood,  and  not  to  speak  also 
with  ease  and  elegance,  is  not  to  be  a  gentle- 
man. How  easily  words  find  the  way  to  the 
heart  when  uttered  in  melodious  cadence  by 
S 


66      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

the  lips  of  the  fair  and  young.  Home  is  the 
centre  and  seat  of  whatever  is  most  useful  to  us ; 
and  yet  to  think  of  home  is  to  think  of  spring- 
time and  flowers,  of  the  songs  of  birds  and 
flowing  waters,  of  the  voices  of  children,  of 
floating  clouds  and  sunsets  that  linger  as 
though  heaven  were  loath  to  bid  adieu  to  earth. 
The  warmth,  the  color,  and  the  light  of  their 
boyish  days  still  glow  in  the  hearts  and  imagi- 
nation of  noble  men,  and  redeem  the  busy 
trafficking  world  of  their  daily  life  from  utter 
vulgarity.  What  hues  has  not  God  painted  on 
the  air,  the  water,  the  fruit,  and  the  grain  that 
are  the  very  substance  and  nutriment  of  our 
bodies?  Beauty  is  nobly  useful.  It  illumines 
the  mind,  raises  the  imagination,  and  warms  the 
heart.  It  is  not  an  added  quality,  but  grows 
from  the  inner  nature  of  things;  it  is  the 
thought  of  God  working  outward.  Only  from 
drunken  eyes  can  you  with  paint  and  tinsel  hide 
inward  deformity.  The  beauty  of  hills  and 
waves,  of  flowers  and  clouds,  of  children  at 
play,  of  reapers  at  work,  of  heroes  in  battle,  of 
poets  inspired,  of  saints  rapt  in  adoration,  —  rises 
from  central  depths  of  being,  and  is  concealed 
from  frivolous  minds.  Even  in  the  presence  of 
death,  the  hallowing  spirit  of  beauty  is  felt.  The 
full-ripe  fruit  that  gently  falls  in  the  quiet  air  of 
long  summer  days,  the  yellow  sheaves  glinting 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  6/ 

in  the  rays  of  autumn's  sun,  the  leaf  which  the 
kiss  of  the  hoar  frost  has  made  blood-red  and 
loosened  from  the  parent  stem,  —  are  images  of 
death  but  they  suggest  only  calm  and  pleasant 
thoughts.  The  Bedouin,  who,  sitting  amid  the 
ruins  of  Ephesus,  thinks  but  of  his  goats  and 
pigs,  heedless  of  Diana's  temple,  Alexander's 
glory,  and  the  words  of  Saint  Paul,  is  the  type  of 
those  who  place  the  useful  above  the  excellent 
and  the  fair;  and  as  men  who  in  their  boards 
of  trade  buy  and  sell  cattle  and  corn,  dream  not 
of  green  fields  and  of  grain  turning  to  gold  in 
the  sun  of  June,  so  we  all,  in  the  business  and 
worry  of  life,  lose  sight  of  beauty  which  makes 
the  heart  glad  and  keeps  it  young. 

The  mind  of  man  is  the  earthly  home  of 
beauty,  and  if  any  real  thing  were  fair  as  the 
tender  thought  of  imaginative  youth,  heaven 
were  not  far.  All  we  love  is  but  our  thought  of 
what  only  thought  makes  known  and  makes 
beautiful,  and  for  what  we  know  love's  thought 
may  be  the  essence  of  all  things. 

Fairer  than  waters  where  soft  moonlight  lies, 
Than  flowers  that  slumber  on  the  breast  of  Spring, 
Than  leafy  trees  in  June  when  glad  birds  sing, 
Than  a  cool  summer  dawn,  than  sunset  skies  ; 

Than  love,  gleaming'  through  Beauty's  deep  blue  eyes, 
Than  laughing  child,  than  orchards  blossoming  ; 
Than  girls  whose  voices  make  the  woodland  ring. 
Than  ruby  lips  that  utter  sweet  replies,  — 


68      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

Fairer  than  these,  than  all  that  may  be  seen, 

Is  the  poetic  mind,  which  sheds  the  light 

Of  heaven  on  earthly  things,  as  Night's  young  Queen 

Forth-looking  from  some  jagged  mountain  height 

Clothes  the  whole  earth  with  her  soft  silvery  sheen 

And  makes  the  beauty  whereof  eyes  have  sight. 

Nature  is  neither  sad  nor  joyful.  We  but  see 
in  her  the  reflection  of  our  own  minds.  Gay 
scenes  depress  the  melancholy,  and  gloomy 
prospects  have  not  the  power  to  rob  the  happy 
of  their  contentment.  The  spring  may  fill  us 
with  fresh  and  fragrant  thoughts,  or  may  but 
remind  us  of  all  the  hopes  and  joys  we  have 
lost;  and  autumn  will  speak  to  one  of  decay 
and  death,  to  another  of  sleep  and  rest,  after 
toil,  to  prepare  for  a  new  and  brighter  awaken- 
ing. All  the  glory  of  dawn  and  sunset  is  but 
etheric  waves  thrilling  the  vapory  air  and  im- 
pinging on  the  optic  nerve;  but  behind  it  all 
is  the  magician  who  sees  and  knows,  who  thinks 
and  loves.  "  It  is  the  mind  that  makes  the 
body  rich."  Thoughts  take  shape  and  coloring 
from  souls  through  which  they  pass ;  and  a  free 
and  open  mind  looks  upon  the  world  in  the 
mood  in  which  a  fair  woman  beholds  herself  in 
a  mirror.  The  world  is  his  as  much  as  the  face 
is  hers.  If  we  could  live  in  the  fairest  spot  of 
earth,  and  in  the  company  of  those  who  are 
dear,  the  source  of  our  happiness  would  still  be 
our  own  thought  and  love ;  and  if  they  are  great 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  69 

and  noble,  we  cannot  be  miserable  however 
meanly  surrounded.  What  is  reality  but  a  state 
of  soul,  finite  in  man,  infinite  in  God?  Theory 
underlies  fact,  and  to  the  divine  mind  all  things 
are  godlike  and  beautiful.  The  chemical  ele- 
ments are  as  sweet  and  pure  in  the  buried 
corpse  as  in  the  blooming  body  of  youth;  and 
it  is  defective  intellect,  the  warp  of  ignorance 
and  sin,  which  hides  from  human  eyes  the  per- 
fect beauty  of  the  world. 

"  Earth 's  crammed  with  heaven, 
And  every  common  bush  afire  with  God  ; 
But  only  he  who  sees,  takes  off  his  shoes." 

What  we  all  need  is  not  so  much  greater  knowl- 
edge, as  a  luminous  and  symmetrical  mind 
which,  whatsoever  way  it  turn,  shall  reflect  the 
things  that  are,  not  in  isolation  and  abstraction, 
but  in  the  living  unity  and  harmony  wherein 
they  have  their  being. 

The  worth  of  religion  is  infinite,  the  value  of 
conduct  is  paramount;  but  he  who  lacks  intel- 
lectual culture,  whatever  else  he  may  be,  is 
narrow,  awkward,  unintelligent.  The  mirror  of 
his  soul  is  dim,  the  motions  of  his  spirit  are 
sluggish,  and  the  divine  image  which  is  himself 
is  blurred. 

But  let  no  one  imagine  that  this  life  of  the 
soul  in  the  mind  is  easy;  for  it  is  only  less  diffi- 
cult than  the  life  of  the  soul  in  God.     To  learn 


70      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

many  things;  to  master  this  or  that  science;  to 
have  skill  in  law  or  medicine ;  to  acquaint  one's 
self  with  the  facts  of  history,  with  the  opinions 
of  philosophers  or  the  teachings  of  theologians, — 
is  comparatively  not  a  difficult  task;  and  there 
are  hundreds  who  are  learned,  who  are  skilful, 
who  are  able,  who  have  acuteness  and  depth 
and  information,  for  one  who  has  an  open,  free, 
and  flexible  mind,  —  which  is  alive  and  active  in 
many  directions,  touching  the  world  of  God  and 
Nature  at  many  points,  and  beholding  truth  and 
beauty  from  many  sides ;  which  is  serious,  sober, 
and  reasonable,  but  also  fresh,  gentle,  and  sym- 
pathetic ;  which  enters  with  equal  ease  into  the 
philosopher's  thought,  the  poet's  vision,  and 
the  ecstasy  of  the  saint;  which  excludes  no 
truth,  is  indifferent  to  no  beauty,  refuses  homage 
to  no  goodness.  The  ideal  of  culture  indeed, 
like  that  of  religion,  like  that  of  art,  lies  beyond 
our  reach,  since  the  truth  and  beauty  which 
lure  us  on,  and  flee  the  farther  the  longer  we 
pursue,  are  nothing  less  than  the  eternal  and 
infinite  God. 

And  culture,  if  it  Is  not  to  end  in  mere  frivol-  i 
ity  and  gloss,  must  be  pursued,  like  religion  and 
art,  with  earnestness  and  reverence.  If  the 
spirit  in  which  we  work  is  not  deep  and  holy, 
we  may  become  accomplished  but  we  shall  not 
gain   wisdom,  power,  and  love.     The  beginner 


THE  LOVE   OF  EXCELLENCE.  7 1 

seeks  to  convert  his  belief  into  knowledge  ;  but 
the  trained  thinker  knows  that  knowledge  ends 
in  belief,  since  beyond  our  little  islets  of  in- 
tellectual vision,  lies  the  boundless,  fathomless 
expanse  of  unknown  worlds  where  faith  and 
hope  alone  can  be  our  guides.  Once  individual 
man  was  insignificant ;  but  now  the  earth  itself  is 
become  so,  —  a  mere  dot  in  infinite  space,  where, 
for  a  moment,  men  wriggle  like  animalcules  in 
a  drop  of  water.  And  if  at  times  a  flash  of  light 
suddenly  gleam  athwart  the  mind,  and  it  seem 
as  though  we  were  about  to  get  a  glimpse  into 
the  inner  heart  of  being,  the  brightness  quickly 
dies,  and  only  the  surfaces  of  things  remain 
visible.  Oh,  the  unimaginable  length  of  ages 
when  on  the  earth  there  was  no  living  thing ! 
then  life's  ugly,  slimy  beginnings ;  then  the  con- 
scious soul's  fitful  dream  stretching  forth  to  end- 
less time  and  space ;  then  the  final  sleep  in 
abysmal  night  with  its  one  star  of  hope  twin- 
kling before  the  all-hidden  throne  of  God,  in 
the  shadow  of  whose  too  great  light  faith  kneels 
and  waits ! 

Why  shall  he  whose  mind  is  free,  symmetrical, 
and  open,  be  tempted  to  vain  glory,  to  frivolous 
boasting?  Shall  not  life  be  more  solemn  and 
sacred  to  him  than  to  another?  Shall  he  in- 
dulge scorn  for  any  being  whom  God  has  made, 
for   any  thought   which  has  strengthened    and 


']2      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

consoled  the  human  heart?  Shall  he  not  per- 
ceive, more  clearly  than  others,  that  the  unseen 
Power  by  whom  all  things  are,  is  akin  to  thought 
and  love,  and  that  they  alone  bring  help  to  man 
who  make  him  feel  that  faith  and  hope  mean 
good,  and  are  fountains  of  larger  and  more  en- 
during life?  The  highest  mind,  like  the  purest 
heart,  is  a  witness  of  the  soul  and  of  God. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CULTURE  AND   THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   AGE. 

But  try,  I  urge,  —  the  trying  shall  suffice  : 

The  aim,  i£  reached  or  not,  makes  great  the  life. 

Browning. 

THE  mass  of  mankind,  if  we  pass  the  whole 
race  in  review,  are  sunk  in  gross  igno- 
rance ;  and  even  in  civiHzed  nations,  where  edu- 
cation is  free,  the  multitude  have  but  a  rude 
acquaintance  with  the  elements  of  knowledge. 
Their  ability  to  read  and  write  hardly  serves  in- 
tellectual and  moral  ends  ;  and  such  learning  as 
they  possess  seems  only  to  weaken  their  power 
to  admire  and  love  what  is  best  in  life  and 
thought. 

If  we  turn  to  the  more  cultivated,  whose  num- 
bers even  in  the  most  enlightened  countries  are 
not  great,  we  find  but  here  and  there  an  indi- 
vidual who  has  anything  better  than  a  sort  of 
mechanical  cleverness.  Students,  it  has  been 
said,  on  leaving  college,  quickly  divide  into  two 
classes,  —  those  who  have  learned  nothing,  and 
those  who   have   forgotten   everything.     In  the 


74      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

professions,  the  lawyer  tends  to  become  an  ad- 
vocate, the  physician  an  empiric,  the  theolo- 
gian a  dogmatist;  and  these  are  but  instances 
of  a  general  falling  away  from  ideals.  The  stu- 
dent of  physical  science  is  subdued  to  what  he 
works  in ;  the  man  of  letters  loses  depth  and 
earnestness ;  and  the  teacher,  whose  business  it 
is  to  rouse  and  illumine  souls,  shrivels  until  he 
becomes  merely  a  repeater  of  facts  and  doc- 
trines in  which  there  is  no  life,  no  power  to 
exalt  the  imagination  or  to  give  tone  to  the  in- 
tellect. The  teacher  cannot  create  talent,  and 
his  best  work  lies  in  stimulating  and  directing 
energy  and  impulse ;  but  this  he  seldom  strives 
to  do  or  to  make  himself  capable  of  doing  ;  and 
hence  pupils  very  generally  leave  school  as  men 
quit  a  prison,  with  a  sense  of  emancipation,  and 
with  a  desire  to  forget  both  the  place  and  the 
kind  of  life  there  encouraged.  A  talent  is  like 
seed-corn,  —  it  bears  within  itself  the  power  to 
break  the  confining  walls  and  to  spring  upward 
to  light,  if  only  it  be  sown  in  proper  soil,  where 
the  rain  and  the  sunshine  fall ;  but  this  is  a 
truth  which  those  who  make  education  a  busi- 
ness are  slow  to  accept.  They  repress  ;  they 
overawe;  they  are  dictatorial;  they  prescribe 
rules  and  methods  for  minds  which  can  gain 
strength  and  wisdom  only  by  following  the  bent 
given  by  their  endowments,  —  and  thus  the  young, 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.     75 

who  are  most  easily  discouraged  in  things  which 
concern  their  highest  gifts,  lose  heart,  turn  away 
from  ideals,  and  abandon  the  pursuit  of  excel- 
lence. The  nobler  the  mind,  the  greater  the 
danger  of  its  being  wrongly  dealt  with.  We 
seldom  find  a  man  whose  thinking  has  helped 
to  form  opinion  and  to  create  literature,  who, 
if  he  care  to  say  what  he  feels,  will  not  declare 
that  his  scholastic  training  was  bad.  Milton, 
Gray,  Dryden,  Wordsworth,  Byron,  Cowley, 
Addison,  Gibbon,  Locke,  Shelley,  and  Cowper 
had  no  love  for  the  schools  to  which  they  were 
sent;  Swift  and  Goldsmith  received  no  college 
honors  ;  and  Pope,  Thomson,  Burns,  and  Shakes- 
peare had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  institu-i 
tions  of  learning.  A  man  educates  himself;  and 
the  best  work  teachers  can  do,  is  to  inspire  the^i 
love  of  mental  exercise  and  a  living  faith  in  the 
power  of  labor  to  develop  faculty,  and  to  open 
worlds  of  use  and  delight  which  are  infinite,  and 
which  each  mdividual  must  rediscover  for  him- 
self. It  is  the  educator's  business  to  cherish 
the  aspirations  of  the  young,  to  inspire  them 
with  confidence  in  themselves,  and  to  make 
them  feel  and  understand  that  no  labor  can  be 
too  great  or  too  long,  if  its  result  be  cultivation 
and  enlightenment  of  mind.  For  them  ideals 
are  real;  their  life  is  as  yet  wrapped  in  the 
bud ;   and  to  encourage  them  to  believe  that  if 


ye      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

they  are  but  true  to  themselves,  the  flower  and 
the  fruit  will  be  fair  and  health-bringing,  is  to 
open  for  them  the  fountain  of  hope  and  noble 
endeavor. 

What  men  have  done,  men  can  still  do.  Nay, 
shall  we  not  rather  believe  that  the  best  is  yet 
to  be  done?  The  peoples  whom  we  call  ancient 
were  but  rude  beginners.  We  are  the  true  an- 
cients, the  inheritors  of  all  the  wisdom  and  all 
the  heroism  of  the  past.  We  stand  in  a  wider 
world,  and  move  forward  with  more  conscious 
purpose  along  more  open  ways.  Of  the  past 
we  see  but  the  summits,  illumined  by  the  rays 
of  genius  and  glory.  Could  we  look  upon  the 
plains  where  the  multitudes  lie  in  darkness,  wear- 
ing the  triple  chain  of  servitude,  ignorance,  and 
want,  we  should  understand  how  fair  and  benefi- 
cent our  own  age  is.  Enthusiasm  for  the  past 
cannot  inspire  the  best  intellectual  work.  The 
heart  turns  to  the  past;  but  the  mind  looks  to 
the  future,  and  is  forever  untwisting  the  cords 
which  bind  us  to  the  things  that  pleased  a  child- 
like fancy.  To  grow  is  to  outgrow;  and  what- 
ever of  the  past  survives,  survives,  as  the  very 
word  implies,  because  it  is  still  living  and  ap- 
plicable here  and  now.  Let  not  the  young  be- 
lieve that  the  age  of  the  heroic  and  godlike  is 
gone.  Good  and  the  means  of  good  are  not 
harder  to   reconcile   to-day  than   they  were    a 


CULTURE  AXD  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      jy 

hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  they  who 
have  a  heart  may  now,  as  the  best  have  done  in 
the  past,  wring  even  from  despair  the  courage 
on  which  victory  loves  to  smile.  If  we  are 
weak  and  inferior  the  fault  lies  in  ourselves,  not 
in  the  age.  We  are  the  age  ;  and  if  we  but  will 
and  work,  opportunities  are  offered  us  to  be- 
come and  to  perform  whatever  may  crown  and 
glorify  a  human  soul.  The  time  for  doing  best 
things,  like  eternity,  is  ever  present.  Let  but 
the  man  stand  forth,  and  he  will  find  and  do 
his  work. 

We  are  too  near  our  own  age  to  discern  its 
true  glory,  which  shall  best  appear  from  the 
vantage-ground  of  another  century ;  but  surely 
we  can  feel  that  it  throbs  with  life,  with  immor- 
tal yearnings,  with  ever-growing  desire  to  give 
to  all  men  higher  thoughts  and  purer  loves. 
Society,  the  State,  the  Church,  the  individual, 
are  striving  with  conscious  purpose  to  make  life 
moral  and  intelligent.  We  have  become  more 
humane  than  men  have  ever  been,  and  accept 
more  fully  the  duty  and  the  task  of  extending 
the  domain  of  justice,  of  goodness,  and  of  truth. 
The  aim  of  our  civilization  is  not  merely  to  in- 
struct the  ignorant,  but  to  make  ignorance  im- 
possible ;  not  merely  to  feed  the  hungry,  but  to 
do  away  with  famine ;  not  merely  to  visit  the 
captive,  but  to  make  captivity  the  means  of  his 


78       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

regeneration.  Already  the  chains  of  the  slave 
have  been  broken,  and  the  earth  has  become 
the  home  of  God's  free  children.  Disease  has 
been  tracked  to  its  secret  hiding-places,  and  bar- 
riers have  been  built  against  pestilence  and  con- 
tagion. War  has  become  less  frequent  and  less 
barbarous;  persecution  for  opinion  and  belief 
has  become  rare;  man's  inhumanity  to  woman, 
which  is  the  deepest  stain  upon  the  history  of 
the  race,  has  yielded  to  the  influence  of  religion 
and  knowledge ;  and  with  ever-increasing  force 
the  truth  is  borne  in  upon  those  who  think  and 
observe,  that  the  fate  of  the  rich  and  high-placed 
cannot  be  separated  from  that  of  the  poor  and 
lowly.  While  we  earnestly  strive  to  control  and 
repress  every  kind  of  moral  evil,  we  feel  that 
society  itself  is  responsible  for  sin  and  crime, 
and  that  social  and  political  conditions  and  con- 
stitutions must  change,  until  the  weak  and  the 
heavy-laden  are  protected  from  the  heartless- 
ness  of  the  strong  and  fortunate.  Not  only 
must  those  who  labor  with  their  hands  have 
larger  opportunities  than  hitherto  have  ever 
been  given  them,  but  in  the  whole  social  life  of 
man  there  must  be  more  justice,  more  love, 
more  tenderness,  more  of  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
than  hitherto  has  ever  been  found  there. 

What   marvellous,    intellectual  work   are   we 
not  doing?     What  admirable  expression  of  the 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      79 

highest  truth  do  we  not  find  in  the  best  writers 
of  our  age!  It  is  not  all  pure  gold;  but 
whether  we  take  a  religious,  a  moral,  or  an 
intellectual  point  of  view,  we  may  not  affirm  of 
the  literature  of  any  age  or  country  that  it  is 
perfect.  When  man  clothes  in  words  what  he 
thinks  and  loves,  what  he  knows  and  believes, 
his  work  bears  the  marks  of  his  defects  not  less 
than  those  of  his  qualities.  Nay,  if  we  turn  to 
the  Bible  itself,  how  much  do  we  not  find  there 
which  we  either  fail  to  comprehend  or  are 
unable  to  apply!  Has  not  the  mind  of  Chris- 
tendom been  trained  and  illumined  by  the  lit- 
eratures of  Greece  and  Rome,  which  in  moral 
purity,  in  elevation  of  sentiment,  in  breadth  and 
depth  of  thought,  in  the  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  Nature,  in  scientific  accuracy,  in  sympathy 
and  tenderness,  are  altogether  inferior  to  the 
best  writings  of  our  own  day?  It  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  this  is  a  material  age  in  which 
the  love  of  religion,  of  poetry,  of  art,  of  excel- 
lence of  whatever  kind,  is  dead.  The  love  of 
what  is  best  has  never  at  any  time  been  alive 
save  in  the  hearts  of  the  chosen  few ;  and  in 
such  souls  it  burns  now  with  as  sweet  and  steady 
a  glow  as  when  Plato  spoke,  and  the  blessed 
Saviour  uttered  words  of  divine  wisdom.  Here 
and  now,  in  and  around  us,  there  is  the  heavenly 
presence  of  budding  life,  of  widening  vision,  of 


8o      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

"  new  thoughts  urgent  as  the  growth  of  wings." 
Let  us  turn  the  white  forehead  of  hope  to  the 
fair  time,  and  deem  no  labor  great  by  which  we 
shall  become  less  unfit  to  do  the  work  of  God 
and  man. 

"  Nay,  never  falter ;  no  great  deed  is  done 
By  falterers  who  ask  for  certainty. 
No  good  is  certain  but  the  steadfast  mind, 
The  undivided  will  to  seek  the  good  : 
'Tis  that  compels  the  elements  and  wrings 
A  human  music  from  the  indifferent  air. 
The  greatest  gift  the  hero  leaves  his  race 
Is  to  have  been  a  hero.     Say  we  fail ! 
We  feed  the  high  tradition  of  the  world 
And  leave  our  spirit  in  our  children's  breasts." 

But  to  enter  upon  such  a  course  of  life  with 
well-founded  hope  of  success,  we  must  be  rever- 
ent and  devout.  The  thrill  of  awe  is,  as  Goethe 
says,  the  best  thing  humanity  has.  We  must 
understand  and  feel  that  the  visible  is  but  the 
shadow  of  the  invisible,  that  the  soul  has  its 
roots  in  God,  whose  kingdom  is  within  us.  We 
must  perceive  that  what  we  know,  believe,  ad- 
mire, love,  and  yearn  for  makes  our  real  life ; 
that  we  are  worth  what  we  are,  and  not  what  we 
possess  and  use.  We  must  be  lovers  of  perfec- 
tion, as  the  divine  Saviour  bids  us  become,  — 
"  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect."  We  must  be  conscious  of  the  im- 
mortal spirit  which   is  ourself,  and  walk  in  the 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.     8 1 

company  of  God  and  of  just  men  made  perfect, 
striving  after  light  and  purity  and  strength, 
which  are  of  the  soul.  We  must  love  the  in- 
ward, the  true,  and  the  eternal  rather  than  the 
outward  and  transitory.  We  must  believe  that 
in  very  truth  we  are  akin  to  God,  that  God  is  in 
us,  and  we  in  him,  and  consequently  that  it  is 
our  first  duty  to  follow  after  perfection,  com- 
pleteness of  life,  in  thought,  in  love,  and  in  con- 
duct. As  it  is  good  to  know,  so  is  it  good  to 
be  strong,  to  be  patient,  to  be  humble,  to  be 
helpful ;  so  is  it  good  to  do  right,  though  the 
deed  should  be  our  only  reward. 

But  we  are  beset  by  all  manner  of  tempta- 
tions to  turn  aside  from  a  high  and  noble  way 
of  living.  The  line  of  least  resistance  for  us  is 
the  common  highway  of  money-getters  and 
place-winners ;  and  the  moment  a  man  gives 
evidence  of  ability,  the  whole  world  urges  him 
to  put  it  to  immediate  use.  Our  public  opinion 
identifies  the  good  with  the  useful,  all  else  is 
visionary  and  unreal.  The  average  man  con- 
trols us  not  only  in  politics,  but  in  religion,  in 
art,  and  in  literature.  To  turn  away  from  ma- 
terial good  in  order  to  gain  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual benefit  is  held  to  be  evidence  of  a  feeble 
or  perverted  understanding.  If  a  man  is  elo- 
quent, let  him  become  a  lawyer,  a  politician,  or 
a  preacher ;  if  he  have  a  talent  for  science,  let 
6 


82       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

him  become  a  physician,  a  practical  chemist, 
or  a  civil  engineer;  if  he  have  skill  in  writing, 
let  him  become  a  journalist  or  a  contributor  to 
magazines.  No  one  asks  himself,  What  shall  I 
do  to  gain  wisdom,  strength,  virtue,  complete- 
ness of  life ;  but  the  universal  question  is.  How 
shall  I  make  a  living,  get  money,  position, 
notoriety?  In  our  hearts  we  should  rather  have 
the  riches  of  a  Rothschild  than  the  mind  of 
Plato,  the  imagination  of  Shakespeare,  or  the 
soul  of  Saint  Theresa.  We  believe  the  best  is 
outside  of  us,  that  the  aids  to  the  most  desir- 
able kind  of  life  are  to  be  found  in  material  and 
mechanical  things.  We  talk  with  pride  of  our 
numbers,  our  institutions,  our  machines ;  we 
love  the  display  and  noise  of  life,  are  eager  to 
mingle  in  crowds,  to  live  in  great  cities,  and  to 
listen  to  exaggerated  and  declamatory  speech. 
The  soberness  of  wisdom,  the  humility  of  reli- 
gion, the  plainness  of  worth,  are  unattractive  and 
unrecognized.  We  rush  after  material  things, 
like  hunters  after  game ;  and  in  the  excitement 
of  the  chase  our  pulse  grows  quick,  and  our 
vision  confused.  We  have  lost  the  art  of  patient 
work  and  expectation.  We  are  no  more  capable 
of  living  in  our  work,  of  making  it  the  means  of 
our  growth  and  happiness.  What  we  do,  must 
be  quickly  done,  must  have  immediate  results. 
Our  success  in  solving  the  political  and  social 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.     83 

problems  has  spoiled  us.  When  we  hear  of  a 
man  who  has  been  prosperous  for  years,  whom 
no  misfortune  has  sobered  and  softened,  we 
expect  him  to  be  narrow  and  supercilious ,  and 
in  the  same  way,  a  prosperous  people  are  ex- 
posed to  the  danger  of  becoming  self-com- 
placent and  superficial.  We  exaggerate  the 
importance  of  our  own  achievements  and  think 
that  which  we  have  accomplished  is  the  best; 
whereas  the  wise  hold  what  they  have  done  in 
slight  esteem,  and  think  only  of  becoming  them- 
selves nobler  and  wiser.  Instead  of  boasting  of 
our  civilization,  because  we  have  industrial  and 
commercial  prosperity,  wealth  and  liberty, 
churches,  schools,  and  newspapers,  we  ought 
to  ask  ourselves  whether  civilization  does  not 
imply  something  more  and  higher  than  this,  — 
what  kind  of  soul  lives  and  loves  and  thinks  in 
this  environment?  Instead  of  trying  to  per- 
suade ourselves  that  we  are  the  greatest  and 
most  enlightened  people,  would  it  not  be  worth 
while  to  ask  ourselves,  in  a  dispassionate  tem- 
per, whether  our  best  men  and  women  are  the 
most  intellectual,  the  most  interesting,  and  the 
most  Christian  men  and  women  to  be  found  in 
the  world?  Do  they  not  lack  repose,  distinc- 
tion, a  sense  for  complete  and  harmonious  living? 
Must  we  not  still  look  to  Europe  for  our  best 
religious   and    philosophic    thought,    our    best 


84      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

poetry,  painting,  music,  and  architecture?  "  Let 
the  passion  for  America,"  says  Emerson,  "  cast 
out  the  passion  for  Europe."  This  is  desirable, 
but  numbers  and  wealth  will  not  bring  it  about. 
While  the  best  is  said  and  done  in  Europe,  the 
better  sort  of  Americans  will  look  thither,  — 
just  as  Europe  looks  to  us  for  corn  and  cotton, 
or  mechanical  appliances.  We  have  done  much, 
and  much  that  it  was  well  to  do.  We  have, 
as  Matthew  Arnold  says,  solved  the  political  and 
social  problems  better  than  any  other  people, 
though  we  ourselves  perceive  that  the  solution 
is  by  no  means  final.  The  conditions  of  our 
life  are  favorable  to  the  many.  It  is  easier  for 
a  man  to  assert  himself  here,  than  it  is  or  has 
ever  been  elsewhere.  A  little  sense,  a  little 
energy,  is  all  that  any  one  needs  to  make  him- 
self independent  and  comfortable ;  and  because 
success  of  this  kind  is  so  easy  it  threatens  to 
absorb  our  whole  life.  They  alone  seem  to  be 
living  worthily  who  are  doing  practical  work, 
who  are  developing  the  natural  wealth  of  the 
country,  starting  new  enterprises  and  inventing 
new  machines.  The  political  problems  which 
interest  us  are  financial;  schools  are  maintained 
and  fostered  because  they  protect  and  strengthen 
our  institutions ;  religious  beliefs  are  tolerated 
and  encouraged  because  they  are  aids  to  moral- 
ity, —  and    morality   means    sobriety,    honesty, 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      85 

industry,  which  lead  to  thrift.  Then  there  is 
an  idea  that  reUgion  is  a  conservative  power, 
useful  as  a  bulwark  against  the  assaults  of  anti- 
social fanatics.  Philosophy,  poetry,  and  art  are 
not  considered  seriously,  because  they  are  not 
seen  to  bear  any  clear  relation  to  our  institutions 
and  temporal  well-being.  Opinion  rules  the 
wide  world  over;  and  in  the  face  of  this  strong 
public  opinion  which  lays  stress  chiefly  upon 
external  things,  —  the  environment,  the  ma- 
chinery of  life,  —  and  not  upon  spiritual  and 
intellectual  qualities,  it  is  not  easy  to  love  knowl- 
edge and  virtue  for  themselves,  for  the  strength 
and  beauty  they  give  to  the  soul,  for  their  power 
to  build  up  the  being  which  is  a  man's  very  self. 
It  is  rare  that  men  have  faith  in  what  but  few 
believe  in ;  they  are  gregarious,  and  need  the 
encouragement  that  comes  of  having  aims  and 
hopes  of  which  the  millions   approve. 

The  predominance  of  the  average  man,  of 
which  our  public  opinion  is  the  result,  puts 
other  obstacles  in  the  way  of  culture.  It  makes 
us  self-complacent,  easily  satisfied  with  what  we 
perform.  A  representative  man  will  become  a 
lawyer,  a  soldier,  a  merchant,  a  legislator,  an 
author,  in  turns,  as  occasion  offers,  and  he  has 
no  doubt  of  his  sufficiency;  because  average 
work  is  all  that  is  expected  of  any  one.  To  be 
able  to  do  anything  fairly  well  seems  to  us  a 


86      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

more  desirable  accomplishment  than  to  be  able 
to  do  some  one  thing  better  than  anybody  else. 
But  this  is  a  view  which  only  those  may  take 
who  live  in  an  imperfectly  developed  society. 
Asmen  become  more  cultivated,  they  more  and 
more  want  only  the  best ;  and  the  noblest 
natures  feel  the  desire  to  do  their  best,  not 
with  their  actual  power,  but  with  the  skill  which 
forty  or  fifty  years  of  discipline  and  effort  might 
give  them.  They  are  laborious;  they  are  pa- 
tient ;  they  persevere  in  one  direction ;  they 
believe  that  if  they  but  continue  to  observe, 
to  think,  to  read,  to  compare,  and  to  express 
in  plain  words  what  they  know,  their  power  of 
seeing  and  of  uttering  will  continue  to  grow. 
The  charm  of  increasing  faculty  in  an  infinite 
world  sways  and  controls  them.  They  never 
know  enough ;  they  are  never  able  to  say  well 
enough  what  they  know;  and  so  they  grow  old 
still  learning  many  things.  They  work  in  a 
spirit  wholly  different  from  that  of  the  common 
man,  who  if  he  get  through  with  what  he  has 
in  hand  is  satisfied.  They  have  an  artist's 
sense  of  perfection ;  and  like  Virgil  would  burn 
the  works  which  if  they  once  escape  their  own 
hands,  the  world  will  never  permit  to  perish. 

It  is  hard  to  resist  when  many  invite  to  utter- 
ance; and  with  us  whoever  has  ability  is  urged 
to   put    himself  forward,    and    consequently   to 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      8/ 

dissipate  in  crude  performances  energies  which 
if  employed  in  self-culture  might  make  of  him  a 
philosopher,  a  poet,  or  a  man  of  science.  As  it 
is  easier  to  act  than  to  think,  the  multitude  of 
course  will  be  only  talkers,  writers,  and  per- 
formers; but  a  great  and  civilized  people  must 
have  at  least  a  few  men  who  take  rank  with  the 
profound  thinkers  and  finished  scholars  of  the 
world.  No  lover  of  America  can  help  thinking 
it  undesirable  that  any  one  should  be  able  to 
say  of  us  with  truth,  what  Locke  has  said,  "  The 
Americans  are  not  all  born  with  worse  under- 
standings than  the  Europeans,  though  we  see 
none  of  them  have  such  reaches  in  the  arts  and 
sciences."  It  is  our  aim  to  create  the  highest 
civilization ;  but  the  highest  civilization  is  favor- 
able to  the  highest  life,  which  implies  and  re- 
quires more  than  the  possession  of  material 
things.  Conduct  is  necessary,  knowledge  is 
necessary,  beauty  is  necessary,  manners  are 
necessary,  and  a  civilized  people  must  develop 
life  in  all  these  directions,  and  as  far  as  such  a 
thing  is  possible,  harmoniously.  Whoever  ex- 
cels in  conduct,  or  in  knowledge,  or  in  a  sense 
for  the  beautiful,  or  in  manners,  helps  to  raise 
the  standard  of  living, — helps  to  give  worth, 
dignity,  charm,  and  refinement  to  life.  It  is 
hard  to  take  interest  in  a  people  who  have  no 
profound  thinkers,  no  great  artists,  no  accom- 


88       EDUCA  TION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

pHshed  scholars,  for  only  such  men  can  lift  a 
people  above  the  provincial  spirit,  and  bring 
them  into  conscious  relationship  with  former 
ages  and  the  wide  world.  The  rule  of  the 
people  looks  to  something  higher  than  oppor- 
tunity for  every  man  to  have  food  and  a  home ; 
to  something  more  than  putting  a  church,  a 
school,  and  a  newspaper  at  every  man's  door. 
Saints  and  heroes,  philosophers  and  poets,  are  a 
people's  glory.  They  give  us  nobler  loves, 
higher  thoughts,  diviner  aims.  They  show  us 
how  like  a  god  man  may  become ;  and  political 
and  social  institutions  which  make  saints  and 
heroes,  philosophers  and  poets,  impossible,  can 
have  but  inferior  value.  And  there  is  some 
radical  wrong  where  the  noblest  manhood  and 
womanhood  are  not  appreciated  and  reverenced. 
Not  to  recognize  genuine  worth  is  the  mark  of  a 
superficial  and  vulgar  character.  The  servile 
spirit  has  no  conception  of  the  heroic  nature; 
and  they  who  measure  life  by  material  stan- 
dards, do  not  perceive  the  infinite  which  is  in 
man  and  which  makes  him  godlike.  A  few 
only  in  any  age  or  nation  love  the  best,  follow 
after  ideal  aims ;  but  when  these  few  are  want- 
ing, all  life  becomes  common-place,  and  the  mil- 
lions pass  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  and 
leave  no  lasting  impression  upon  the  world. 
The  practical  turn  of   mind  which  finds  ex- 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      89 

pression  in  our  commercial  and  industrial 
achievements,  makes  itself  felt  also  in  our  in- 
tellectual activity,  and  those  among  us  who 
have  knowledge  and  power  of  utterance  are 
expected,  almost  required,  to  throw  themselves 
into  the  breakers  of  controversy,  to  discuss  the 
hundred  political,  social,  religious,  financial,  san- 
itary, and  educational  problems  which  are  ever 
waiting  to  be  solved.  Let  them  enter  the  lists, 
let  them  take  sides,  let  them  strive  to  see  clear 
in  an  atmosphere  of  smoke  and  fog  ;  and  not  to 
do  this  is,  in  the  estimation  of  the  many,  to  be 
a  dreamer,  a  dilettante,  a  thinker  to  no  purpose. 
But  this  is  precisely  what  those  who  seek  to 
cultivate  themselves,  who  seek  to  learn  and 
communicate  the  best  that  is  known,  ought  not 
to  do.  They  should  live  in  a  serene  air,  in  a 
world  of  tranquillity  and  peace,  where  the  soul  is 
not  troubled  by  contention,  where  the  view  is 
not  perturbed  by  passion.  They  should  have 
leisure,  which  is  the  original  meaning  of  school 
and  scholar  ;  for  the  mind,  like  the  soul,  is 
refreshed  and  strengthened  by  quiet  meditation. 
Its  improvement  is  slow,  is  imperceptible  often ; 
its  training  is  the  result  of  delicate  methods 
which  require  patience  and  perseverance,  faith 
in  ideals,  and  a  constant  looking  to  the  all- 
perfect  Infinite  ;  and  to  throw  it  into  the  noise 
and    confusion    of  the    busy   excited    world    of 


90       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

practical  affairs  is  to  stunt  and  warp  its  growth. 
We  do  not  hitch  a  race-horse  to  the  plough, 
nor  should  we  ask  the  best  intellects  to  do  the 
common  work  of  which  every  man  is  capable. 
They  render  the  best  service,  when  living  in 
communion  with  the  highest  and  most  cultivated 
minds  of  the  past  and  present,  they  learn  and 
teach  the  way  of  looking  and  thinking,  of  be- 
having and  doing,  which  has  been  followed  by 
the  greatest  and  noblest  of  the  race.  Political 
and  social  questions  are  forever  changing  ;  views 
which  commend  themselves  to-day  will  in  a  few 
years  seem  absurd ;  measures  which  are  thought 
to  be  of  vital  importance  will  grow  to  be  inap- 
plicable. To  talk  and  write  about  such  things 
is  well,  —  may  help  to  prevent  stagnation  and 
corruption  in  public  life;  but  they  exercise 
altogether  a  higher  office,  who  live  in  the  pres- 
ence of  what  is  permanently  true  and  good  and 
beautiful,  who  believe  in  ideal  aims  and  ends 
and  prevent  the  masses  from  losing  sight  of 
what  constitutes  man's  real  worth.  They  do 
what  they  alone  can  do,  whereas  the  practical 
and  the  useful  may  be  any  one's  work.  They 
may  not,  of  course,  isolate  themselves ;  on  the 
contrary  they  must  live  closer  than  other  men 
not  only  to  God  and  Nature,  but  also  to  the 
past  and  present  history  of  their  country  and  of 
mankind.     They   study  the  movements  of  the 


CULTURE  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE.      9 1 

age,  but  they  study  them  in  a  philosophic  and 
not  in  a  partisan  spirit.  They  seek  to  know,  not 
what  is  popular,  but  what  is  right  and  good  ;  and 
they  often  see  clearly  where  the  view  of  others 
is  uncertain  and  confused.  Encouragements 
and  rewards  are  not  necessary  for  them,  for 
they  are  drawn  to  the  knowledge  and  love  of 
the  best  by  irresistible  attractions,  and  the  more 
they  learn  and  love  the  more  beneficent  and 
joy-giving  does  their  life  become.  Their  aims 
and  ends  are  in  harmony  with  the  highest  rea- 
son and  the  highest  faith.  The  world  they  live 
in  abides ;  and  if  they  are  neglected  or  forgot- 
ten now,  they  can  wait,  for  truth  and  goodness 
and  beauty  can  never  lose  their  power  or  their 
charm. 

"  The  worthiest  poets  have  remained  uncrowned 
Till  death  has  bleached  their  foreheads  to  the  bone." 


CHAPTER  V. 

SELF-CULTURE. 

There  is 
One  great  society  alone  on  earth 
The  noble* Living  and  the  noble  Dead.  » 

Wordsworth. 

THE  passion  for  truth  and  for  the  culture 
which  makes  its  possession  possible  is  not 
rightly  felt  by  the  heart  of  boy  or  of  youth ;  it 
is  the  man's  passion,  and  its  power  over  him  is 
most  irresistibly  asserted  when  outward  restraint 
has  been  removed,  when  escaping  from  the  con- 
trol of  parents  and  teachers  he  is  left  to  himself 
to  shape  his  course  and  seek  his  own  ends. 
When  his  companions  have  finished  their  studies 
he  feels  that  his  own  are  now  properly  only 
about  to  begin ;  when  they  are  dreaming  of 
liberty  and  pleasure,  of  wealth  and  success,  of 
the  world  and  its  honors,  his  mind  is  haunted 
by  the  mystery  of  God  and  Nature,  by  visions 
of  dimly  discerned  truth  and  beauty  which  he 
must  follow  whithersoever  they  lead ;  and  al- 
ready he  perceives  that  wisdom  comes  to  those 
alone  who  toil  and  cease  not  from  labor,  who 
suffer  and  are  patient.     Hitherto  he  hafi  learned 


SELF-  CUL  TURK.  93 

the  lessons  given  him  by  teachers  appointed 
by  others ;  henceforth  he  is  himself  to  choose 
his  instructors.  As  once,  half-unconscious,  he 
played  in  the  smile  or  frown  of  Nature,  and 
drank  knowledge  with  delight,  so  now  in  the 
world  of  man's  thought,  hope,  and  love,  he  is, 
with  deliberate  purpose,  to  seek  what  is  good 
for  the  nourishment  of  his  soul.  Happy  is  he, 
for  nearly  all  men  toil  and  suffer  that  they  may 
live;  but  he  is  also  to  have  time  to  labor,  to 
make  life  intelligent  and  fair.  He  must  know 
not  only  what  the  blind  atoms  are  doing,  but 
what  saints,  sages,  and  heroes  have  loved, 
thought,  and  done.  He  will  still  keep  close  to 
Nature  who,  though  she  utters  myriad  sounds, 
never  speaks  a  human  word ;  but  he  will  also 
lerfd  his  ear  to  the  voice  of  wisdom  which  lies 
asleep  in  books,  and  to  sympathetic  minds  whis- 
pers from  other  worlds  whatever  high  or  holy 
truth  has  consecrated  the  life  of  man.  His 
guiding  thought  must  be  how  to  make  the  work 
by  which  he  maintains  himself  in  the  world 
subserve  moral  and  intellectual  ends ;  for  his 
aim  is  not  merely  or  chiefly  to  have  goods,  but 
to  be  wise  and  good,  and  therefore  to  build  up 
within  himself  the  power  of  conduct  and  the 
power  of  intelligence  which  makes  man  human, 
and  distinguishes  him  from  whatever  else  on 
earth  has  life. 


94       EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

It  is  our  indolence  and  frivolity  that  make 
routine  duties,  however  distracting  or  importu- 
nate, incompatible  with  the  serious  application 
which  the  work  of  self-culture  demands;  but 
we  are  by  nature  indolent  and  frivolous,  and 
only  education  can  make  us  earnest  and  labo- 
rious. None  but  a  cultivated  mind  can  under- 
stand that  if  the  whole  human  race  could  be 
turned  loose,  to  eat  and  drink  and  play  like 
thoughtless  children,  life  would  become  mean- 
ingless ;  that  a  paradise  in  which  work  should 
not  be  necessary  would  become  wearisome.  The 
progress  of  the  race  ii^the  result  of  effort,  physi- 
cal,*'religidiis,  n*oralf-and  kitellectual ;  and  the 
advance  of  individuals  is  proportional  to  their 
exertion.  Nature  herself  pushes  the  young  to 
bodily  exercise;  but  though  activity  is  for  them 
a  kind  of  necessity,  only  the  discipline  of  habit 
will  lead  them  to  prefer  labor  to  idleness ;  and 
they  will  not  even  use  their  senses  properly 
unless  they  are  taught  to  look  and  to  listen,  — 
just  as  they  are  taught  to  walk  and  to  ride.  The 
habit  of  manual  labor,  as  it  is  directly  related  to 
the  animal  existence  to  which  man  is  prone,  and 
supplies  the  physical  wants  whose  urgency  is 
most  keenly  felt,  is  acquired  with  least  difficulty, 
and  it  prepares  the  way  for  moral  and  intellect- 
ual life ;  but  it  especially  favors  the  life  which 
has    regard    to    temporal    ends    and    conduces 


t 


SELF-CULTURE.  95 

to  comfort  and  well-being.  They  whose  in- 
strument is  the  brain  rarely  aim  at  anything 
higher  than  wealth  and  position ;  and  if  they 
become  rich  and  prominent,  they  remain  narrow 
and  uninteresting.  They  talk  of  progress,  of 
new  inventions  and  discoveries,  and  they  neglect 
to  improve  themselves ;  they  boast  of  the  great- 
ness of  their  country,  while  their  real  world  is 
one  of  vulgar  thought  and  desire ;  they  take 
interest  in  what  seems  to  concern  the  general 
welfare,  but  fail  to  make  themselves  centres 
of  light  and  love.  What  is  worse  they  have 
the  conceit  of  wisdom, — they  lack  reverence; 
they  are  impatient,  and  must  have  at  once  what 
they  seek.  But  the  better  among  us  see  the 
insufficiency  of  the  popular  aims,  and  begin  to 
yearn  for  something  other  than  a  life  of  politics, 
newspapers,  and  financial  enterprise.  They  de- 
sire to  know  and  love  the  best  that  is  known, 
and  they  are  willing  to  be  poor  and  obscure,  if 
they  may  but  gain  entrance  into  this  higher 
world.  "  I  shall  ever  consider  myself,"  says 
Descartes,  "  more  obliged  to  those  who  leave 
me  to  my  leisure,  than  I  should  to  any  who 
might  offer  me  the  most  honorable  employ- 
ments." This  is  the  thought  of  every  true  stu- 
dent and  lover  of  wisdom ;  for  he  feels  that 
whatever  a  man's  occupation  may  be,  his  busi- 
ness is  to  improve  his   mind  and  to  form  his 


96      EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

character.     He    desires   not  to    be   known  and 

appreciated,  but  to  know  and  appreciate  ;  not 

to   have   more,   but  to  be  more  ;    not   to  have 

friends,  but  to  be  the  friend  of  man,  —  which  he 

is  when  he  is  the  lover  of  truth.     He  turns  from 

vulgar  pleasures  as  he  turns  from  pain,  because 

both  pleasure  and  pain  in  fastening  the  soul  to 

the  body  deprive  it  of  freedom  and  hinder  the 

play  of  the  mind. 

He  loves  the  best  with  single  heart 
And  without  thought  what  gifts  it  bring. 

Unless  one  have  deep  faith  in   the    good  of 
culture  he  will  easily  become  discouraged  in  the 
work  which  is  here  urged  upon  him.     He  must 
be  drawn  to  the  love  of  intellectual  excellence 
by  an  attraction  such  as  a  poet  feels  in  the  pres- 
ence of  beauty;  he  must  believe  in  it  as  a  miser 
believes  in    gold ;    he  must   seek  it   as  a  lover 
seeks  the  beloved.      Our  wants  determine  our 
pleasures,  and    they  who    have   no    intellectual 
cravings  feel  not  the  need  of  exercise  of  mind. 
They  are  born  and  remain  inferior.     They  are 
content  with  the  world  which  seems  to  be  real, 
forgetting  the  higher  one,  which  alone  is  real; 
they  are  not   urged    to  the  intellectual   life  by 
irresistible  instincts.     They  are  discouraged  by 
difficulties,  thwarted  by  obstacles  which   lie   in 
the  path  of  all  who  strive  to  move  forward  and 
to  gain  higher  planes.     It  is  not  possible  to  ad- 


SELF-CULTURE.  97 

vance  except  along  the  road  of  toil,  of  strug- 
gle, and  of  suffering.  We  cannot  emerge  even 
from  childish  ignorance  and  weakness  without 
experiencing  a  sense  of  loss.  Mental  work  in 
the  beginning  and  for  a  long  time  is  weariness, 
is  little  better  than  drudgery.  We  labor,  and 
there  seems  to  be  no  gain ;  we  study  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  increase  of  knowledge  or  power; 
and  if  we  persevere,  we  are  led  by  faith  and 
hope,  not  by  any  clear  perception  of  the  result 
of  persistent  application.  Genius  itself  is  not 
exempt  from  this  law.  Poets  and  artists  work 
with  an  intensity  unknown  to  others,  and  are 
distinguished  by  their  faith  in  the  power  of 
labor.  The  consummate  musician  must  practise 
for  hours,  day  by  day,  year  in  and  year  out. 
The  brain  is  the  most  delicate  and  the  finest  of 
instruments,  and  it  is  vain  to  imagine  that  any- 
thing else  than  ceaseless,  patient  effort  will 
enable  us  to  use  it  with  perfect  skill ;  indeed,  it 
is  only  after  long  study  that  we  become  capable 
of  understanding  what  the  perfection  of  the  in- 
tellect is,  that  we  become  capable  of  discerning 
what  is  excellent,  beautiful,  and  true  in  style 
and    thought. 

Discouragement  and  weariness  will,  again  and 
again,  suggest  doubts  concerning  the  wisdom  of 
this  ceaseless  effort  to  improve  one's  self.  Why 
persist  in  the  pursuit  of  what  can  never  be  com- 

7 


98       EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

pletely  attained?  Why  toil  to  gain  what  the 
mass  of  men  neither  admire  nor  love?  Why 
wear  out  life  in  a  course  of  action  which  leads 
neither  to  wealth  nor  honors?  Why  turn  away 
from  pleasures  which  lie  near  us  to  follow  after 
ideal  things?  These  are  questions  which  force 
themselves  upon  us ;  and  it  requires  faith  and 
courage  not  to  be  shaken  by  this  sophistry. 
Visions  of  ideal  life  float  before  young  eyes,  and 
if  to  be  attracted  by  what  is  high  and  fair  were 
enough,  it  were  not  difficult  to  be  saint,  sage,  or 
hero ;  but  when  we  perceive  that  the  way  to 
the  best  is  the  road  of  toil  and  drudgery,  that 
we  must  labor  long  and  accomplish  little,  wan- 
der far  and  doubt  our  progress,  must  suffer 
much  and  feel  misgivings  whether  it  is  not  in 
vain,  —  then  only  the  noblest  and  the  bravest  still 
push  forward  in  obedience  to  inward  law.  The 
ideal  of  culture  appeals  to  them  with  irresistible 
force.  They  consent  to  lack  wealth,  and  the 
approval  of  friends  and  the  world's  applause; 
they  are  willing  to  turn  away  when  fair  hands 
hold  out  the  cup  of  pleasure,  when  bright 
eyes  and  smiling  lips  woo  to  indulgence.  If, 
you  ask,  How  long?  They  answer.  Until  we 
die !  They  are  lovers  of  wisdom  and  do  not 
trust  to  hope  of  temporal  reward.  Their  aim 
is  light  and  purity  of  mind  and  heart;  these 
they  would  not  barter  for  comfort  and  position. 


SELF-CULTURE.  99 

As  saints,  while  doing  the  common  work  of  men, 
walk  uplifted  to  worlds  invisible,  so  they,  amid 
the  noise  and  distractions  of  life  still  hear  the 
appealing  voice  of  truth ;  and  as  parted  lovers 
dream  only  of  the  hour  when  they  shall  meet 
again,  so  these  chosen  spirits,  in  the  midst  of 
whatever  cares  and  labors,  turn  to  the  time 
when  thought  shall  people  their  solitude  as  with 
the  presence  of  angels.  They  hear  heavenly 
voices  asking,  Why  stay  ye  on  the  earth,  unless 
to  grow?  Vanity,  frivolity,  and  fickleness  die 
within  them ;  and  they  grow  to  be  humble  and 
courageous,  disinterested  and  laborious,  strong 
and  persevering.  The  cultivation  of  their  higher 
nature  becomes  the  law  of  their  life ;  and  the 
sense  of  duty,  "  stern  daughter  of  the  voice  of 
God,"  which  of  all  motives  that  sway  the  heart, 
best  stands  the  test  of  reason,  becomes  their 
guide  and  support.  Thus  culture,  which  looks 
to  the  Infinite  and  All-wise  as  to  its  ideal,  rests 
upon  the  basis  of  morality  and  religion. 

To  think  is  difficult,  and  they  who  wish  to 
grow  in  power  of  thought  must  hoard  their 
strength.  Excess,  of  whatever  kind,  is  a  waste 
of  intellectual  force.  The  weakness  of  men  of 
genius  has  impoverished  the  world.  Sensual 
indulgence  diminishes  spiritual  insight;  it  per- 
verts reason,  and  deadens  love ;  it  enfeebles  the 
physical  man,  and  weakens  the  organs  of  sense, 


lOO     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

which  are  the  avenues  of  the  soul.  The  higher 
self  is  developed  harmoniously  only  when  it 
springs  from  a  healthful  body.  It  is  the  lack  of 
moral  balance  which  makes  genius  akin  to  mad- 
ness. Nothing  is  so  sane  as  reason,  and  great 
minds  fall  from  truth  only  when  they  fail  in  the 
strength  which  comes  of  righteous  conduct. 

Let  the  lover  of  wisdom  then  strive  to  live  in 
a  healthy  body  that  his  senses  may  report  truly 
of  the  universe  in  which  he  dwells.  But  this  is 
not  easy ;  for  mental  labor  exhausts,  and  if  the 
vital  forces  are  still  further  diminished  by  dissi- 
pation, disease  and  premature  decay  of  the 
intellectual  faculties  will  be  the  result.  The 
ideal  of  culture  embraces  the  whole  man,  physi- 
cal, moral,  religious,  and  intellectual ;  and  the 
loss  of  health  or  morality  or  faith  cannot  but 
impede  the  harmonious  development  of  the 
mind  itself.  Passion  is  the  foe  of  reason,  and 
may  easily  become  strong  enough  to  extinguish 
its  light.  He  who  wishes  to  educate  himself 
must  learn  to  resist  the  desires  of  his  lower 
nature,  which  if  indulged  deaden  sensibility, 
weaken  the  will,  take  from  the  imagination  its 
freshness,  and  from  the  heart  the  power  of  lov- 
ing. The  task  he  has  set  himself  is  arduous, 
and  he  cannot  have  too  much  energy,  too  much 
warmth  of  soul,  too  much  capacity  for  labor. 
Let   him    not   waste,    like  a  mere    animal,    the 


SELF-CULTURE.  lOI 

Strength  which  was  given  him  that  he  might 
learn  to  know  and  love  infinite  truth  and  beauty. 
The  dwelling  with  one's  self  and  with  thoughts 
of  what  is  true  and  high,  which  is  an  essential 
condition  of  mental  growth,  is  impossible  when 
the  sanctuary  of  the  soul  is  filled  with  unclean 
images.  Intellectual  honesty,  the  disinterested 
love  of  truth,  without  which  no  progress  can 
be  made,  will  hardly  be  found  in  those  who 
are  the  slaves  of  unworthy  passions.  The  more 
religious  a  man  is,  the  more  does  he  believe  in 
the  worth  and  sacredness  of  truth,  and  the  more 
willing  does  he  become  to  throw  all  his  energies 
with  persevering  diligence  into  the  work  of  self- 
improvement.  They  who  fail  to  see  in  the 
universe  an  all-wise,  all-holy,  and  all-powerful 
Being,  from  whom  are  all  things  and  to  whom 
all  things  turn,  easily  come  to  doubt  whether  it 
holds  anything  of  true  worth.  History  teaches 
this,  and  it  requires  little  reflection  to  perceive 
that  it  must  be  so.  Of  the  Solitary,  Wordsworth 
says,  — 

"  But  In  despite 
Of  all  this  outside  bravery,  within 
He  neither  felt  encouragement  nor  hope. 
For  moral  dignity  and  strength  of  mind 
Were  wanting,  and  simplicity  of  life 
And  reverence  for  himself;  and,  last  and  best, 
Confiding  thoughts,  through  love  and  fear  of  Him 
Before  whose  sight  the  troubles  of  this  world 
Are  vain." 


102     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

The  corrupt  and  the  ignorant  easily  learn  to 
feel  contempt,  but  the  scholar  is  reverent.  He 
moves  in  the  midst  of  infinite  worlds,  and  knows 
that  the  least  is  part  of  the  whole. 

Now,  how  shall  he  who  is  resolved  to  edu- 
cate himself  set  about  his  work?  What  ad- 
vice shall  be  given  him?  What  rules  shall 
be  made  for  him  that  he  may  not  waste  time 
and  energy?  He  who  yearns  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  mind  which  makes  wisdom  possible 
must  work  his  way  to  the  light.  All  intellect 
ual  men  strive  to  educate  themselves,  but  each 
one  strives  in  a  different  way.  They  all  aim  at 
insight  rather  than  information,  at  the  perfect 
use  of  their  faculties  rather  than  learning.  The 
power  to  see  things  as  they  are,  is  what  they 
want;  and  therefore  they  look,  observe,  exam- 
ine, compare,  analyze,  meditate,  read,  and  write. 
And  they  keep  doing  this  day  by  day;  and  the 
longer  they  work,  the  more  attractive  their 
work  grows  to  be.  Descartes,  who  is  a  typical 
lover  of  the  intellectual  life,  looked  upon  him- 
self simply  as  a  thinking  being,  and  gave  all  his 
thought  to  the  cultivation  of  his  higher  faculties 
in  the  hope  that  he  might  finally  discover  some 
truth  which  would  bring  blessings  to  men.  He 
had  no  thought  of  literary  fame,  published  little, 
and  sedulously  avoided  whatever  might  bring 
him  into  notoriety.     "  Those,"   he  says,   "  who 


SELF-CUL  TURE.  1 03 

wish  to  know  how  to  speak  of  everything  and 
to  acquire  a  reputation  for  learning,  will  succeed 
most  easily  if  they  content  themselves  with  the 
semblance  of  truth,  which  may  readily  be  found." 
The  love  of  truth  is  the  mark  of  the  real  stu- 
dent. What  is,  is ;  it  is  man's  business  to  know 
it.  He  is  the  foe  of  pretence ;  sham  for  him 
means  shame.  He  will  have  sound  knowledge; 
he  will  do  his  work  well :  whether  men  shall 
applaud  or  reward  him  for  it,  is  a  foreign  con- 
sideration. He  obeys  an  inward  law,  and  the 
praise  of  those  who  cannot  understand  him 
sounds  to  him  like  mockery.  True  thought, 
like  right  conduct,  is  its  own  reward.  To  see 
truth  and  to  love  it  is  enough,  —  is  more  than 
to  have  the  worship  of  the  world.  The  impor- 
tant thing  is  to  be  a  man,  to  have  a  serious  pur- 
pose, to  be  in  earnest,  to  yearn  for  what  is  good 
and  holy;  and  without  this  the  culture  of  the 
intellect  will  not  avail. 

We  must  build  upon  the  broad  foundation  of 
man's  life,  and  not  upon  any  special  faculty. 
The  merely  literary  man  is  often  the  most  piti- 
ful of  men,  —  able,  it  may  be,  to  do  little  else 
than  complain  that  his  merits  are  not  recog- 
nized. Let  it  not  be  imagined  then  that  the 
lover  of  wisdom,  the  follower  of  intellectual 
good,  should  propose  to  himself  a  literary  ca- 
reer.    He  may  of  course  be  or  become  a  man 


104    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

of  letters,  but  this  is  incidental  to  his  life-pur- 
pose, which  is  to  develop  within  himself  the 
power  of  knowing  and  loving.  He  will  learn 
to  think  rightly  and  to  act  well,  first  of  all ;  for 
he  knows  that  a  man's  writing  cannot  be  worth 
more  than  he  himself  is  worth.  He  is  a  seeker 
after  truth  and  perfection;  and  understanding 
at  the  price  of  what  countless  labors  these  may 
be  hoped  for,  he  is  slow  to  imagine  that  words 
of  his  may  be  of  help  to  others. 

Observation,  reading,  and  writing  are  the 
chief  means  by  which  thought  is  stimulated,  the 
mind  developed,  and  the  intellect  cultivated. 
The  habit  of  looking  and  the  habit  of  thinking 
are  closely  related,  A  man  thinks  as  he  sees ; 
and  for  a  mind  like  Shakespeare's,  for  instance, 
observation  is  almost  the  only  thing  that  is 
necessary  for  its  development.  The  boundless 
world  breaks  in  upon  him  with  creative  force. 
His  sympathy  is  universal,  and  therefore  so  is 
his  interest.  He  sees  the  like  in  the  unlike,  the 
differences  in  things  which  are  similar.  Every 
little  bird  and  every  little  flower  are  known  to 
him.  He  contemplates  Falstaff  and  Poor  Tom 
with  as  much  interest  as  though  they  were 
Hamlet  and  King  Lear.  In  all  original  minds 
the  power  of  observation  is  great.  It  is  the 
chief  source  of  our  earliest  knowledge,  of  that 
which  touches  us  most  nearly  and  most  deeply 


SELF-CUL  TURE.  1 05 

colors  the  imagination.  When  the  boy  is  wan- 
dering through  fields,  sitting  in  the  shade  of 
trees,  or  lying  on  the  banks  of  murmuring 
streams,  he  is  not  only  learning  more  delightful 
things  than  books  will  ever  teach  him,  but  he  ) 
is  also  acquiring  the  habit  of  attention,  of  look-  ' 
ing  at  what  he  sees,  which  nowhere  else  can  be 
gotten  in  so  natural  and  pleasant  a  way.  Hence 
the  best  minds  have  either  been  born  in  the 
country  or  have  passed  there  some  of  their  early 
years.  Unless  we  have  first  learned  to  look  ] 
with  the  eye,  we  shall  never  learn  to  look  with  j 
the  mind.  They  who  walk  unmoved  beneath 
the  starlit  heavens,  or  by  the  ever-moving  ocean, 
or  amid  the  silent  mountains;  who  do  not  find, 
like  Wordsworth,  that  the  meanest  flower  that 
blows  gives  thoughts  which  often  lie  too  deep 
for  tears,  will  not  derive  great  help  from  the 
world  of  books.  But  in  the  world  of  books  the 
intellectual  must  also  make  themselves  at  home 
and  live,  must  thence  draw  nourishment,  light, 
wisdom,  strength,  for  there  as  nowhere  else  the 
mind  of  man  has  stamped  its  image ;  and  there 
the  thoughts  of  the  master  spirits  still  breathe, 
still  glow  with  truth  and  beauty.  The  best 
books  are  powers 

"  Forever  to  be  hallowed  ;  only  less, 
For  what  we  are  and  what  we  may  btecome, 
Than  Nature's  self,  which  is  the  breath  of  God, 
Or  his  pure  Word,  by  miracle  revealed." 


I06     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

But  it  is  as  difficult  to  know  books  as  to  know 
men.  There  are  but  few  men  who  can  be  of 
intellectual  service  to  us ;  and  there  are  but  few 
books  which  stimulate  and  nourish  the  mind. 
The  best  books  are,  as  Milton  says,  "  the  pre- 
cious life-blood  of  a  master  spirit;  "  and  it  is  ab- 
surd to  suppose  that  they  will  reveal  their  secret 
to  every  chance  comer,  to  every  heedless  reader. 
As  it  takes  a  hero  to  know  a  hero,  so  only  an 
awakened  mind  can  love  and  understand  the 
great  thinkers.  The  reading  of  the  ignorant  is 
chiefly  a  mechanical  proceeding;  and,  indeed, 
for  men  in  general  reading  is  little  better  than 
waste  of  time.  Their  reading,  like  their  con- 
versation, leaves  them  what  they  were,  or  worse. 
The  mass  of  printed  matter  has  no  greater  value 
from  an  intellectual  point  of  view  at  least  than 
the  wide  ever-flowing  stream  of  talk;  and  for 
the  multitude  it  is  all  the  same  whether  they 
gossip  and  complain,  or  read  and  nod.  How- 
ever m.uch  they  read,  they  remain  unintelligent; 
what  knowledge  they  gain  is  fragmentary,  un- 
real ;  they  learn  merely  enough  to  talk  about 
what  they  do  not  understand.  We  may  of 
course  read  for  entertainment,  as  we  may  talk 
for  entertainment  ;  but  this  is  merely  a  recrea- 
tion of  the  mind,  which  is  good  only  because  it 
rests  and  prepares  us  for  work.  The  wise  read 
books  to  be  enlightened,  uplifted,  and  inspired. 


SELF-CUL  TURE.  1 0^ 

Their  reading  is  a  labor  in  which  every  faculty 
of  the  mind  is  awake  and  active.  They  are  at- 
tentive; they  weigh,  compare,  judge.  They 
re-create  within  their  own  minds  the  images 
produced  by  the  author ;  they  seek  to  enter 
into  his  inmost  thought;  they  admire  each  well- 
turned  phrase,  each  happy  epithet;  they  walk 
with  him,  and  make  themselves  at  home  in  the 
wonderland  which  his  genius  has  called  into 
being;  past  centuries  rise  before  them,  and 
they  almost  forget  that  they  did  not  hear  Plato 
discourse  in  the  Academy,  or  stroll  with  Horace 
along  the  Sacred  Way.  As  they  are  brought 
thus  intimately  into  the  company  of  the  noblest 
minds,  they  think  as  they  thought,  feel  as  they 
felt,  and  so  are  enlightened  and  inspired.  They 
drink  the  spirit  of  the  mighty  dead,  and  grad- 
ually come  to  live  in  a  higher  and  richer  world. 
The  best  in  life  and  literature  is  seen  to  be  such 
only  by  those  who  have  made  themselves  worthy 
of  the  heavenly  vision  ;  and  once  we  have 
learned  to  love  the  few  real  books  of  the  world, 
or  rather  what  in  these  few  is  eternally  true  and 
beautiful,  we  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  the 
intellectual  life.  What  is  frivolous,  or  false,  or 
vulgar  can  no  longer  please  us  :  having  seen  and 
loved  what  is  high  we  may  not  sink  to  the 
lower. 

Knowledge  may  be  useful,  and  yet  have  little 


I08     EDUCA2V0N  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

power  to  nourish,  train,  and  enlarge  the  mind, 
and  it  is  its  disciplinary  and  educational  value 
which  we  are  here  considering.  Medicine  for  a 
physician,  law  for  an  attorney,  theology  for  a 
clergyman,  is  the  most  useful  knowledge ;  but 
they  are  not  therefore  the  best  means  of  intel- 
lectual culture.  Natural  science,  though  it  is 
most  useful,  ministering  as  it  does  in  a  thousand 
ways  and  with  ever-increasing  efficacy  to  our 
wants  and  comforts,  has  but  an  inferior  educa- 
tional power.  Acquaintance  with  the  uniform 
co-existences  and  sequences  of  phenomena  is 
not  a  mental  tonic.  Such  knowledge  not  only 
leaves  us  unmoved,  —  it  has  a  tendency  even  to 
fetter  the  free  play  of  the  mind  and  to  chill  the 
imagination.  It  unweaves  the  rainbow,  and 
leaves  us  the  dead  chemical  elements.  The 
information  we  have  gained  is  practical,  but  it 
does  not  exalt  the  soul  or  render  us  more  keenly 
alive  to  the  divine  beauty  which  rests  on  Nature's 
face.  It  does  not  enable  us,  as  does  the  knowl- 
edge of  literature  and  history,  to  participate  in 
the  conscious  life  of  the  race.  It  makes  no 
appeal  to  our  nobler  human  instincts.  There 
is  no  book  on  natural  science,  nor  can  there 
ever  be  one,  which  may  take  a  place  among  the 
few  immortal  works  which  men  never  cease  to 
read  and  love.  Physical  science  has  its  own 
domain,  and  its  study  will  continue  to  enrich  the 


SELF-  CUL  TURE.  1 09 

world,  to  make  specialists  of  a  hundred  kinds ; 
but  it  never  can  take  the  place  of  literature  and 
history  as  a  means  of  culture  ;  and  as  an  edu- 
cational force  its  value  is  greatest  when  it  is 
studied  not  experimentally,  but  as  literature,  — 
though  of  course,  every  cultivated  man  should 
be  familiar  with  the  inductive  method,  and 
should  receive  consequently  a  certain  scientific 
training. 

History,  in  bringing  us  into  the  presence  of 
the  greatest  men  and  in  showing  us  their  might- 
iest achievements,  rouses  our  whole  being.  It 
sets  the  mind  aglow,  awakens  enthusiasm,  and 
fires  the  imagination.  It  makes  us  feel  how 
blessed  a  thing  it  is  "  to  scorn  delights  and  live 
laborious  days ;  "  how  divine  to  perish  in  bring- 
ing truth  and  holiness  to  men.  We  commingle 
with  the  makers  of  the  world  ;  we  hear  them 
speak  and  see  them  act  ;  we  catch  the  spirit  of 
their  lofty  purpose,  their  high  courage,  their 
noble  eloquence.  When  we  drink  deeply  of 
the  wisdom  which  history  teaches,  we  come  to 
understand  that  truth  and  justice,  heroism  and 
religion,  which  are  the  virtues  of  the  greatest 
men,  may  be  ours  as  easily  as  theirs  ;  that  op- ' 
portunity  for  true  men  is  ever  present,  and  that 
the  task  set  for  each  one  of  us  is  as  sacred  and 
important  as  any  which  has  ever  been  intrusted 
to  the  human  mind  and  will.     Our  thouirht  is 


no     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

widened,  our  hearts  are  strengthened,  and  we 
come  to  feel  that  it  shall  be  well  for  others  that 
we  too  have  lived.  "When  we  have  learned  to 
be  at  home  with  lofty  and  generous  natures,  the 
heroic  mood  becomes  natural  to  us. 

There  are  of  course  but  few  histories  which 
have  this  tonic  effect  upon  the  mind  and  the 
will,  but  with  these  the  lover  of  culture  should 
make  himself  familiar.  Each  one  must  find  the 
book  he  needs ;  and  though  he  should  find  no 
help  in  a  volume  which  time  and  the  consent  of 
the  learned  have  consecrated,  let  him  not  be 
discouraged,  but  continue  to  seek  and  to  read 
until  he  meet  with  the  author  who  fills  his  soul 
with  joy  and  opens  to  his  wondering  eyes  vis- 
ions of  new  worlds.  To  love  any  great  book  so 
that  we  read  it  —  or  at  least  those  portions  of 
it  which  especially  appeal  to  us  —  many  times, 
and  always  with  new  pleasure  (as  a  mother 
never  wearies  of  looking  upon  her  child),  until 
the  thought  and  style  of  the  author  become  al- 
most our  own,  is  to  learn  the  secret  of  self- 
education  ;  for  he  who  understands  and  loves 
one  great  book  is  sure  to  find  his  way  to  the 
love  and  knowledge  of  other  works  of  genius. 
He  will  not  read  chiefly  to  gain  information, 
but  he  will  read  for  exaltation  of  spirit,  for  en- 
lightenment, for  strength  of  soul,  for  the  help 
which  springs  from  contact  with  generous  and 


SELF-CULTURE.  Ill 

awakened  minds.  He  will  mark  his  favorite 
passages  and  refer  to  them  often,  as  one  loves 
to  revisit  places  where  he  has  been  happy: 
and  these  very  pencil-marks  will  become  dear 
to  him  as  tokens  of  truth  revealed,  of  wisdom 
gained,  of  joy  bestowed.  The  best  reading  is 
that  which  most  profoundly  stimulates  thought, 
which  brings  our  own  minds  into  active,  con- 
scious communion  with  the  mind  of  the  author; 
and  hence  the  best  poetry  is  the  most  effica- 
cious and  the  most  delightful  aid  to  mental 
improvement. 

Poetry  is,  as  Aristotle  says,  the  most  philo- 
sophic of  all  writing.  It  is  also  the  writing 
which  is  most  instinct  with  passion,  with  life. 
It  springs  from  intense  thought  and  feeling, 
and  bears  within  itself  the  power  to  call  forth 
thought  and  feeling.  It  is  thought  transfused 
with  the  glow  of  emotion,  and  consequently 
thought  made  beautiful,  attractive,  contagious. 
It  is,  to  quote  Wordsworth,  "  the  breath  and 
finer  spirit  of  all  knowledge;  it  is  the  impas- 
sioned expression  which  is  in  the  countenance 
of  all  science."  The  poet  has  more  enthusiasm 
and  tenderness  than  other  men,  a  more  sensi- 
tive soul,  a  more  comprehensive  mind.  His 
wider  sympathy  gives  him  greater  insight;  and 
his  power  to  see  absent  things  as  though  they 
were  present  enables  him  to  brin^  the  distant 


112     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

and  the  past  before  our  eyes,  to  make  them 
hve  again  in  a  new  and  immortal  world ;  he 
stimulates  the  whole  mind  and  appeals  to  every 
faculty  of  the  soul.  The  greatest  philosophers 
are,  like  Plato,  poets  too ;  and  unless  the  his- 
torian is  also  a  poet,  there  is  no  inspiration,  no 
life  in  what  he  writes.  It  is  as  superficial  and 
vulgar  to  sneer  at  poetry  as  to  sneer  at  relig- 
ion ;  and  they  alone  are  mockers  who  have  eyes 
but  for  some  counterfeit.  To  be  able  to  read 
a  true  poet  is  not  a  gift  of  Nature ;  it  is  a  faculty 
to  be  acquired.  He  creates,  as  Wordsworth 
says,  the  taste  by  which  he  is  appreciated.  To 
imagine  we  may  read  him  as  we  read  a  frivo- 
lous novel  is  absurd  ;  it  may  well  happen  we 
shall  see  no  truth  or  beauty  in  him  until  patient 
study  has  made  it  plain.  It  often  takes  the 
world  a  hundred  years  or  more  to  recognize  a 
great  poet ;  and  a  knowledge  of  his  worth  can 
be  had  by  the  student  only  at  the  price  of 
patient  labor.  Wordsworth  will  attract  scarcely 
any  one  at  the  first  glance;  the  great  number 
of  readers  will  soon  weary  of  him  and  throw 
him  aside ;  but  those  who  learn  to  understand 
him  find  in  his  writings  treasures  above  all 
price.  There  are  but  a  few  great  poems  in  the 
literatures  of  the  different  nations,  but  he  who 
wishes  to  hav^e  a  cultivated  mind  must,  at  the 
cost  of  whatever   time   and   labor,    make  him- 


SELF-CUL  TURE.  1 1 3 

self  familiar  with  them ;  for  there  alone  are 
found  the  best  thoughts  clothed  in  fittest  words; 
there  alone  are  rightly  portrayed  the  noblest 
characters ;  there  alone  is  the  world  of  men  and 
things  transfigured  by  the  imagination  and  il- 
lumined by  the  pure  light  of  the  mind.  True 
poets  help  us  to  see,  they  teach  us  to  admire, 
they  lift  our  thoughts,  they  appeal  to  our 
higher  nature ;  they  give  us  nobler  loves,  more 
exalted  aims,  more  spiritual  purposes ;  they 
make  us  feel  that  to  live  for  money  or  place  is 
to  lead  a  narrow  and  a  slavish  life ;  and  to  men 
around  whom  the  fetters  of  material  and  har- 
dening cares  are  growing,  they  cry  and  bid 
them  — 

"  Look  abroad 
And  see  to  what  fair  countries  they  are  bound." 

But  even  the  greatest  poets  have  weaknesses, 
and  are  great  only  by  comparison.  There  is 
not  one  who  however  he  may  enchant  and 
strengthen,  does  not  also  disappoint  us.  The 
perfect  poet  the  future  will  bring;  and  to  his 
coming  we  shall  look  with  more  eager  expec- 
tation than  if  we  foresaw  man  dowered  with 
wings.  The  elevation  we  forebode  is  of  the 
soul,  not  of  the  body.  Progress  we  have  al- 
ready made.  It  is  no  longer  possible  for  a  true 
poet  to  sing  of  sensual  delights;  the  man  he 
creates  is  now  no  more  the  slave  "  of  low  am- 
8 


114    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  II FE. 

bition    or   distempered     love."      His   theme    is 
rather  — 

"  No  other  than  the  heart  of  man 
As  found  among  the  best  of  those  who  live, 
Not  unexalted  by  religious  faith, 
Nor  uninformed  by  books,  good  books,  though  few, 
In  Nature's  presence." 

Writing  is  as  great  an  aid  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  mind  as  reading.  It  is  indeed  indispen- 
sable, and  the  accuracy  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion of  which  Bacon  speaks,  is  but  one  of  its  good 
results.  "  By  writing,"  says  Saint  Augustine, 
"  I  have  learned  many  things  which  nothing 
else  had  taught  me."  There  is,  of  course,  no 
question  here  of  writing  for  publication.  To  do 
this  no  one  should  be  urged.  The  farther  we 
are  from  all  thought  of  readers,  the  nearer  are 
we  to  truth ;  and  once  an  author  has  published, 
a  sort  of  madness  comes  over  him,  and  he 
seems  to  be  doing  nothing  unless  he  continue 
to  publish.  The  truly  intellectual  man  leads  an 
interior  life ;  he  dwells  habitually  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  of  Nature,  and  of  his  own  soul ; 
he  swims  in  a  current  of  ideas,  looks  out  upon 
a  world  of  truth  and  beauty ;  he  would  rather 
gain  some  new  vision  of  the  eternal  reality  than 
to  have  a  mountain  of  gold  or  the  suffrages  of 
a  whole  people.  The  great  hinderance  is  lack 
of  the  power  of  prolonged  attention,  of  sustained 


SELF-CUL  TURK.  1 1 5 

thought;  and  this  the  habit  of  serious  writing 
gives.  But  the  habit  itself  is  difficult  to  acquire. 
At  first  in  attempting  to  write  we  are  discouraged 
to  find  how  crude,  how  unreal,  how  little  within 
our  control  our  knowledge  is ;  and  it  will  often 
happen  that  we  shall  simply  hold  the  pen  in 
idleness,  either  because  we  find  nothing  to 
write,  or  because  the  proper  way  to  express 
what  we  think  eludes  our  efforts.  When  this 
happens  day  after  day,  the  temptation  will 
come  to  abandon  our  purpose,  and  to  seek 
easier  and  less  effective  means  of  developing 
mental  strength,  or  else  we  shall  write  care- 
lessly and  without  thought,  which  is  even  a 
greater  evil  than  not  to  write  at  all.  In  the 
writing  of  which  I  am  thinking  there  is  no  ques- 
tion of  style,  of  what  critics  and  readers  will 
say;  all  that  is  asked  is  that  we  apply  our 
minds  to  things  as  they  appear  to  us,  and  put  in 
plain  words  what  we  see.  Thus  our  style  will 
become  the  expression  of  our  thought  and  life. 
It  will  be  the  outgrowth  of  a  natural  method, 
and  consequently  will  have  genuine  worth. 
What  is  written  in  this  way  should  be  pre- 
served, not  that  others  may  see  it,  but  that  we 
ourselves  by  comparing  our  earlier  with  our 
later  essays  may  be  encouraged  by  the  evidence 
of  improvement.  It  is  not  necessary  to  make 
choice  of  a  subject,  —  whatever  interests  us  is 


II 6    EDUCATION  AND    THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 

a  fit  theme ;  and  if  nothing  should  happen 
specially  to  interest  us,  by  writing  we  shall  gain 
interest  in  many  things. 

The  method  here  proposed  requires  serious 
application,  perseverance,  diligence:  it  is  diffi- 
cult; but  they  who  have  the  courage  to  con- 
tinue to  write,  undeterred  by  difficulties,  will 
gain  more  than  they  hope  for.  They  will  grow 
in  strength,  in  accuracy,  in  pliancy,  in  openness 
of  mind ;  they  will  become  capable  of  pro- 
found and  just  views,  and  will  gradually  rise  to 
worlds  of  truth  and  beauty  of  which  the  com- 
mon man  does  not  dream.  And  it  will  fre- 
quently happen  that  there  will  be  permanent 
value  in  what  is  written  not  to  please  the  crowd 
or  to  flatter  a  capricious  public  opinion,  or  to 
win  gold  or  applause,  but  simply  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  one's  own  soul  to  bear  witness 
to  truth.  As  the  painter  takes  pallet  and  brush, 
the  musician  his  instrument,  each  to  perfect  ' 
himself  in  his  art,  so  he  who  desires  to  learn 
how  to  think  should  take  the  pen,  and  day  by 
day  write  something  of  the  truth  and  love,  the 
hope  and  faith,  which  make  him  a  living  man. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GROWTH   AND   DUTY. 

Why  stay  we  on  the  earth  unless  to  grow  ? 

Browning. 

WHAT  life  is  in  itself  we  do  not  know,  any 
more  than  we  know  what  matter  is  in 
itself;  but  we  know  something  of  the  properties 
of  matter,  and  we  also  have  some  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  life.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  law  of  growth,  through  which  the 
living  receive  the  power  of  self-development,  — 
of  bringing  their  endowments  into  act,  of  build- 
ing up  the  being  which  they  are.  Whatever 
living  thing  is  strong  or  beautiful  has  been 
made  so  by  growth,  since  life  begins  in  darkness 
and  impotence.  To  grow  is  to  be  fresh  and 
joyous.  Hence  the  spring  is  the  glad  time ; 
for  the  earth  itself  then  seems  to  renew  its 
youth,  and  enter  on  a  fairer  life.  The  growing 
grass,  the  budding  leaves,  the  sprouting  corn, 
coming  as  with  unheard  shout  from  regions  of 
the  dead,  fill  us  with  happy  thoughts,  because 
in  them  we  behold  the  vigor  of  hfe,  bringing 
promise  of  higher  things. 


Il8    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

Nature  herself  seems  to  rejoice  in  this  vital 
energy;  for  the  insects  hum,  the  birds  sing,  the 
lambs  skip,  and  the  very  brooks  give  forth  a 
merry  sound.  Growth  leads  us  through  Won- 
derland. It  touches  the  germs  lying  in  dark- 
ness, and  the  myriad  forms  of  life  spring  to 
view ;  the  mists  are  lifted  from  the  valleys,  and 
flowers  bloom  and  shed  fragrance  through  the 
air.  Only  the  growing  —  those  who  each 
moment  are  becoming  something  more  than 
they  were  —  feel  the  worth  and  joyousness  of 
life.  Upon  the  youth  nothing  palls,  for  he  is 
himself  day  by  day  rising  into  higher  and 
wider  worlds.  To  grow  is  to  have  faith,  hope, 
courage. 

The  boy  who  has  become  able  to  do  what  a 
while  ago  was  impossible  to  him,  easily  believes 
that  nothing  is  impossible  ;  and  as  his  powers 
unfold,  his  self-confidence  is  nourished ;  he  ex- 
ults in  the  consciousness  of  increasing  strength, 
and  cannot  in  any  way  be  made  to  understand 
the  doubts  and  faint-heartedness  of  men  who 
have  ceased  to  grow.  Each  hour  he  puts  off 
some  impotence,  and  why  shall  he  not  have 
faith  in  his  destiny,  and  feel  that  he  shall  yet 
grow  to  be  poet,  orator,  hero,  or  what  you  will 
that  is  great  and  noble .-'  And  as  he  delights  in 
life,  we  take  delight  in  him. 

In   the   same  way  a  young   race  of  people 


GROWTH  AXD  DUTY.  1 19 

possesses  a  magic  charm.  Homer's  heroes  are 
barbarians  ;  butfthey  are  inspiring,  because  they 
belong  to  a  growing  race,)  and  we  see  in  them 
the  budding  promise  of  the  day  when  Alex- 
ander's sword  shall  conquer  the  world ;  when 
Plato  shall  teach  the  philosophy  which  all  men 
who  think  must  know;  and  when  Pericles  shall 
bid  the  arts  blossom  in  a  perfection  which  is  the 
despair  of  succeeding  generations.  And  so  in 
the  Middle  Ages  there  is  barbarism  enough, 
with  its  lawlessness  and  ignorance ;  but  there  is 
also  faith,  courage,  strength,  which  tell  of  youth, 
and  point  to  a  time  of  mature  faculty  and  high 
achievement.  There  is  the  rich  purple  dawn 
which  shall  grow  into  the  full  day  of  our  modern 
life. 

Here  in  this  New  World  we  are  the  new 
people,  in  whose  growth  what  highest  hopes, 
what  heavenly  promises  lie  !  All  the  nations 
which  are  moving  forward,  are  moving  in  di- 
rections in  which  we  have  gone  before  them,  — 
to  larger  political  and  religious  liberty ;  to 
wider  and  more  general  education ;  to  the 
destroying  of  privilege  and  the  disestablishment 
of  churches ;  to  the  recognition  of  the  equal 
rights  not  only  of  all  men,  but  of  all  men  and 
women. 

We  also  lead  the  way  in  the  revolution  which 
has    been  set  in   motion  by  the  application  of 


I20    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

science  to  mechanical  purposes,  one  of  the  re- 
sults of  which  is  seen  in  the  industrial  and  com- 
mercial miracles  of  the  present  century.  It  is 
our  vigorous  growth  which  makes  us  the  most 
interesting  and  attractive  of  the  modern  peoples. 
For  whether  men  love  us,  or  whether  they  hate 
us,  they  find  it  impossible  to  ignore  us,  unless 
they  wish  to  argue  themselves  unknown;  and 
the  milhons  who  yearn  for  freedom  and  oppor- 
tunity turn  first  of  all  to  us. 

But  observant  minds,  however  much  they 
may  love  America,  however  great  their  faith 
in  popular  government  may  be,  cannot  contem- 
plate our  actual  condition  without  a  sense  of 
disquietude ;  for  there  are  aspects  of  our  social 
evolution  which  sadden  and  depress  even  the 
most  patriotic  and  loyal  hearts.  It  would  seem, 
for  instance,  that  with  us,  while  the  multitude 
are  made  comfortable  and  keen-witted,  the  in- 
dividual remains  commonplace  and  weak ;  so 
that  on  all  sides  people  are  beginning  to  ask 
themselves  what  is  the  good  of  all  this  money 
and  machinery  if  the  race  of  godlike  men  is  to 
die  out,  or  indeed  if  the  result  is  not  to  be  some 
nobler  and  better  sort  of  man  than  the  one  with 
whom  we  have  all  along  been  familiar.  Is  not 
the  yearning  for  divine  men  inborn?  In  the 
heroic  ages  such  men  were  worshipped  as  gods, 
and  one  of  the  calamities  of  times  of  degeneracy 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  J 21 

is  the  dying  out  of  faith  in  the  worth  of  true 
manhood  caused  by  the  disappearance  of  supe- 
rior men.  Such  men  alone  are  memorable,  and 
give  to  history  its  inspiring  and  educating  power. 
The  ruins  of  Athens  and  Rome,  the  cathedrals 
and  castles  of  Europe,  uplift  and  strengthen  the 
heart,  because  they  bid  us  reflect  what  thoughts 
and  hopes  were  theirs  who  thus  could  build. 

How  quickly  kings  and  peasants,  millionnaires 
and  paupers,  become  a  common,  undistin- 
guished crowd !  But  the  hero,  the  poet,  the 
saint,  defy  the  ages  and  remain  luminous  and 
separate  like  stars.     They  — 

"  Waged  contention  with  their  time's  decay, 
And  of  the  past  are  all  that  cannot  pass  away." 

The  soul,  which  makes  man  immortal,  has 
alone  the  power  to  make  him  beneficent  and 
beautiful. 

But  in  this  highest  kind  of  man,  in  whom  soul 
—  that  is,  faith,  hope,  love,  courage,  intellect  — 
is  supreme,  we  Americans,  who  are  on  the  crest 
of  the  topmost  waves  of  the  stream  of  tendency, 
are  not  rich.  We  have  our  popular  heroes ; 
but  so  has  every  petty  people,  every  tribe  its 
heroes.  The  dithyrambic  prose  in  which  it  is 
the  fashion  to  celebrate  our  conspicuous  men 
has  a  hollow  sound,  very  like  cant.  A  marvel- 
lous development  of  wealth   and  numbers  has 


122     EDUCATION  AND    THE   HIGHER   LIFE. 

taken  place  in  America;  but  what  American  — 
poet,  philosopher,  scientist,  warrior,  ruler,  saint 
—  is  there  who  can  take  his  place  with  the  fore- 
most men  of  all  this  world?  The  American 
people  seem  still  to  be  somewhat  in  the  position 
of  our  new  millionnaires  :  their  fortune  is  above 
them,  overshadows,  and  oppresses  them.  They 
live  in  fine  houses,  and  have  common  thoughts ; 
they  have  costly  libraries,  and  cheap  culture ; 
and  their  rich  clothing  poorly  hides  their  coarse 
breeding.  Nor  does  the  tendency  seem  to  be 
toward  a  nobler  type  of  manhood. 

The  leaders  of  the  Revolution,  the  framers  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  the  men  who  con- 
tended for  State-rights,  and  still  more  those  who 
led  in  the  great  struggle  for  human  rights  were 
of  stronger  and  nobler  mould  than  the  politi- 
cians who  now  crowd  the  halls  of  Congress. 
The  promise  of  a  literature  which  a  generation 
ago  budded  forth  in  New  England  was,  it  ap- 
pears, delusive.  What  a  sad  book  is  not  that 
recently  issued  from  the  press  on  the  poets  of 
America!  It  is  the  chapter  on  snakes  in 
Ireland  which  we  have  all  read,  —  there  are 
none.  And  are  not  our  literary  men  whom  it  is 
possible  to  admire  and  love  either  dead  or  old 
enough  to  die? 

All  this,  however,  need  not  be  cause  for  dis- 
couragement, if  in    the   generations   which  are 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  1 23 

springing  up  around  us,  and  which  are  soon  to 
enter   upon   the   scene   of  active  life,  we  could 
discover    the    boundless     confidence,    the    high 
courage,  the  noble  sentiments,  which  make  the 
faults  of  youth  more  attractive  than  the  formal 
virtues    of  a    maturer    age.     But   youth   seems 
about  to  disappear  from  our  life,  to  leave  only 
children  and  men.      For  a  true  youth  the  age  of 
chivalry   has    not   passed,  nor  has   the  age  of 
faith,    nor   the    age    of    poetry,    nor    the    age 
of  aught   that   is    godlike   and    ideal.     To  our 
young  men,  however,  high  thoughts  and  heroic 
sentiments  are  what  they  are  to  a  railroad  presi- 
dent or  a  bank  cashier,  —  mere  nonsense.     Life 
for  them  is  wholly  prosaic  and  without  illusions. 
They  transform  ideas  into  interests,  faith  into  a 
speculation,   and   love   into   a  financial  transac- 
tion.    They  have  no  vague  yearnings  for  what 
cannot    be ;    hardly    have    they    any    passions. 
They   are    cold    and    calculating.      They    deny 
themselves,   and   do   not   believe  in  self-denial; 
they  are  active,  and  do  not  love  labor ;   they  are 
energetic,   and   have   no   enthusiasm ;    they   ap- 
proach life  with  the  hard,  mechanical  thoughts 
with  which  a  scientist  studies  matter.    Their  one 
idea  is  success,  and  success  for  them  is  money. 
Money  means  power,  it  means  leisure,  it  means 
self-indulgence,  it  means  display;   it  means,  in 
a    word,  the    thousand    comforts    and    luxuries 


124    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

which,  in  their  opinion,  constitute  the  good 
of  life. 

In  aristocratic  societies  the  young  have  had  a 
passion  for  distinction.  They  have  held  it  to 
be  an  excellent  thing  to  belong  to  a  noble 
family,  to  occupy  an  elevated  position,  to  wear 
the  glittering  badges  of  birth  and  of  office.  In 
ages  of  religious  faith  they  have  been  smitten 
with  the  love  of  divine  ideals ;  they  have  yearned 
for  God,  and  given  all  the  strength  of  their 
hearts  to  make  his  will  prevail.  But  to  our 
youth  distinction  of  birth  is  fictitious,  and  God 
is  problematic ;  and  so  they  are  left  face  to  face 
with  material  aims  and  ends ;  and  of  such  aims 
and  ends  money  is  the  universal  equivalent. 

Now,  it  could  not  ever  occur  to  me  to  think 
of  denying  that  the  basis  of  human  life,  individ- 
ual and  social,  is  material.  Matter  is  part  of  our 
nature  ;  we  are  bedded  in  it,  and  by  it  are  nour- 
ished. It  is  the  instrument  we  must  use  even 
when  we  think  and  love,  when  we  hope  and 
pray.  Upon  this  foundation  our  spiritual  being 
is  built;  upon  this  foundation  our  social  welfare 
rests. 

Concern  for  material  interests  is  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  human  progress ;  since  nothing 
else  so  stimulates  to  effort,  and  effort  is  the  law 
of  growth.  The  savage  who  has  no  conception 
of  money,  but  is  satisfied  with  what  Nature  pro- 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  125 

vides,  remains  forever  a  savage.  Habits  of 
industry,  of  order,  of  punctuality,  of  economy 
and  thrift,  are,  to  a  great  extent,  the  result  of 
our  money-getting  propensities.  Our  material 
wants  are  more  urgent,  more  irresistible;  they 
press  more  constantly  upon  us  than  any  other ; 
and  those  whom  they  fail  to  rouse  to  exertion 
are,  as  a  rule,  hopelessly  given  over  to  indolence 
and  sloth.  In  the  stimulus  of  these  lower  needs, 
then,  is  found  the  impulse  which  drives  men  to 
labor  ;  and  without  labor  welfare  is  not  possible. 

The  poor  must  work,  if  they  would  drink  and  eat ; 

The  weak  must  work,  if  they  in  strength  would  grow  ; 

The  ignorant  must  work,  if  they  would  know  ; 
The  sad  must  work,  if  they  sweet  joy  would  meet. 

The  strong  must  work,  if  they  would  shun  defeat ; 

The  rich  must  work,  if  they  would  flee  from  woe  ; 

The  proud  must  work,  if  they  would  upward  go; 
The  brave  must  work,  if  they  would  not  retreat. 

So  for  all  men  the  law  of  work  is  plain  ; 

It  gives  them  food,  strength,  knowledge,  vict'ry,  peace  ; 
It  makes  joy  possible,  and  lessens  pain  ; 

From  passion's  lawless  power  it  wins  release, 
Confirms  the  heart,  and  widens  reason's  reign. 

Makes  men  like  God,  whose  work  can  never  cease. 

Whatever  enables  man  to  overcome  his  in- 
born love  of  ease  is,  in  so  far,  the  source  of 
good.  Now,  money  represents  what  more  than 
anything  else  has  this  stimulating  power.  It  is 
the  equivalent  of  what  we  eat  and  drink,  of  the 


126     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

homes  we  live  in,  of  the  comforts  with  which  we 
surround  ourselves,  of  the  independence  which 
makes  us  free  to  go  here  or  there,  to  do  this  or 
that,  —  to  spend  the  winter  where  orange  blos- 
soms perfume  the  soft  air,  and  the  summer 
where  ocean  breezes  quicken  the  pulse  of  life. 
It  unlocks  for  us  the  treasury  of  the  world, 
opens  to  our  gaze  whatever  is  sublime  or  beau- 
tiful ;  introduces  us  to  the  master-minds  who 
live  in  their  works ;  it  leads  us  where  orators 
declaim,  and  singers  thrill  the  soul  with  ecstasy. 
Nay,  more,  with  it  we  build  churches,  endow 
schools,  and  provide  hospitals  and  asylums  for 
the  weak  and  helpless.  It  is,  indeed,  like  a  god 
of  this  nether  world,  holding  dominion  over 
many  spheres  of  life  and  receiving  the  heart- 
worship  of  millions. 

Yet,  if  we  make  money  and  its  equivalents 
a  life-purpose  —  the  aim  and  end  of  our  earthly 
hopes  —  our  service  becomes  idolatry,  and  a 
blight  falls  upon  the  nobler  self.  Money  is 
the  equivalent  of  what  is  venal,  —  of  all  that 
may  be  bought  or  sold ;  but  the  best,  the  god- 
like, the  distinctively  human,  cannot  be  bought 
or  sold.  A  rich  man  can  buy  a  wife,  but  not 
a  woman's  love ;  he  can  buy  books,  but  not  an 
appreciative  mind ;  he  can  buy  a  pew,  but  not 
a  pure  conscience ;  he  can  buy  men's  votes  and 
flattery,    but   not   their   respect.     The   money- 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  12/ 

world  is  visible,  material,  mechanical,  external; 
the  world  of  the  soul,  of  the  better  self,  is 
invisible,  spiritual,  vital.  God's  kingdom  is 
within.  What  we  have  is  not  what  we  are ; 
and  the  all-important  thing  is  to  be,  and  not  to 
have.  Our  possessions  belong  to  us  only  in  a 
mechanical  way.  The  poet's  soul  owns  the  stars 
and  the  moonlit  heavens,  the  mountains  and 
rivers,  the  flowers  and  the  birds,  more  truly 
than  a  millionnaire  owns  his  bonds.  What  I 
know  is  mine,  and  what  I  love  is  mine  ;  and  as 
my  knowledge  widens  and  my  love  deepens,  my 
life  is  enlarged  and  intensified.  But,  since  all 
human  knowledge  is  imperfect  and  narrow,  the 
soul  stretches  forth  the  tendrils  of  faith  and 
hope.  Looking  upon  shadows,  we  believe  in 
realities ;  possessing  what  is  vain  and  empty, 
we  trust  to  the  future  to  bring  what  is  full  and 
complete. 

All  noble  literature  and  life  has  its  origin  in 
regions  where  the  mind  sees  but  darkly  ;  where 
faith  is  more  potent  than  knowledge ;  where 
hope  is  larger  than  possession,  and  love  might- 
ier than  sensation.  The  soul  is  dwarfed  when- 
ever it  clings  to  what  is  palpable  and  plain, 
fixed  and  bounded.  Its  home  is  in  worlds 
which  cannot  be  measured  and  weighed.  It  has 
infinite  hopes,  and  longings,  and  fears;  lives  in 
the  conflux  of  immensities ;  bathes    on  shores 


128     EDUCATION  AA'D    THE   HIGHER   LIFE. 

where  waves  of  boundless  yearning  break. 
Borne  on  the  wings  of  time,  it  still  feels  that 
only  what  is  eternal  is  real,  —  that  what  death 
can  destroy  is  even  now  but  a  shadow.  To  it 
all  outward  things  are  formal,  and  what  is  less 
than  God  is  hardly  aught.  In  this  mysterious, 
supersensible  world  all  true  ideals  originate, 
and  such  ideals  are  to  human  life  as  rain  and 
sunshine  to  the  corn  by  which  it  is  nourished. 

What  hope  for  the  future  is  there,  then,  when 
the  young  have  no  enthusiasm,  no  heavenly  illu- 
sions, no  divine  aspirations,  no  faith  that  man 
may  become  godlike,  more  than  poets  have 
ever  imagined,  or  philosophers  dreamed?  — 
when  money,  and  what  money  buys,  is  the  high- 
est they  know,  and  therefore  the  highest  they 
are  able  to  love?  —  when  even  the  ambitious 
among  them  set  out  with  the  deliberate  purpose 
of  becoming  the  beggars  of  men's  votes ;  of  win- 
ning an  office  the  chief  worth  of  which,  in  their 
eyes,  lies  in  its  emoluments  ? —  when  even  the  glo- 
rious and  far-sounding  voice  of  fame  for  them 
means  only  the  gabble  and  cackle  of  notoriety? 

The  only  example  which  I  can  call  to  mind 
of  an  historic  people  whose  ideals  are  altogether 
material  and  mechanical,  is  that  of  China.  Are 
we,  then,  destined  to  become  a  sort  of  Chinese 
Empire,  with  three  hundred  millions  of  human 
beings,  and  not  a  divine  man  or  woman? 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  129 

Is  what  Carlyle  says  is  hitherto  our  sole 
achievement  —  the  bringing  into  existence  of 
an  almost  incredible  number  of  bores  —  is  this 
to  be  the  final  outcome  of  our  national  life?  Is 
the  commonest  man  the  only  type  which  in  a 
democratic  society  will  in  the  end  survive? 
Does  universal  equality  mean  universal  inferior- 
ity? Are  republican  institutions  fatal  to  noble 
personality?  Are  the  people  as  little  friendly 
to  men  of  moral  and  intellectual  superiority  as 
they  are  to  men  of  great  wealth  !  Is  their  dis- 
like of  the  millionnaires  but  a  symptom  of  their 
aversion  to  all  who  in  any  way  are  distinguished 
from  the  crowd?  And  is  this  the  explanation 
of  the  blight  which  falls  upon  the  imagination 
and  the  hearts  of  the  young? 

Ah !  surely,  we  who  have  faith  in  human 
nature,  who  believe  in  freedom  and  in  popular 
government,  can  never  doubt  what  answer  must 
be  given  to  all  these  questions.  A  society  which 
inevitably  represses  what  is  highest  in  the  best 
sort  of  men  is  an  evil  society.  A  civilization 
which  destroys  faith  in  genius,  in  heroism,  in 
sanctity,  is  the  forerunner  of  barbarism.  In- 
dividuality is  man's  noblest  triumph  over  fate, 
his  most  heavenly  assertion  of  the  freedom  of 
the  soul;  and  a  world  in  which  individuality  is 
made  impossible  is  a  slavish  world.  There  man 
dwindles,  becomes  one  of  a  multitude,  the  im- 
9 


130    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

personal  product  of  a  general  law ;  and  all  his 
godlike  strength  and  beauty  are  lost.  Is  not 
one  true  poet  more  precious  than  a  whole  gener- 
ation of  millionnaires  ;  one  philosopher  of  more 
worth  than  ten  thousand  members  of  Congress ; 
one  man  who  sees  and  loves  God  dearer  than 
an  army  of  able  editors? 

The  greater  our  control  of  Nature  becomes, 
the  more  its  treasures  are  explored  and  utilized, 
the  greater  the  need  of  strong  personality  to 
counteract  the  fatal  force  of  matter.  Just  as 
men  in  tropical  countries  are  overwhelmed  and 
dwarfed  by  Nature's  rich  profusion,  so  in  this 
age,  in  which  industry  and  science  have  pro- 
duced resources  far  beyond  the  power  of  unas- 
sisted Nature,  only  strong  characters,  marked 
individualities,  can  resist  the  influence  of  wealth 
and  machinery,  which  tend  to  make  man  of  less 
importance  than  that  which  he  eats  and  wears, 
—  to  make  him  subordinate  to  the  tools  he 
uses. 

From  many  sides  personality,  which  is  the 
fountain-head  of  worth,  genius,  and  power,  is 
menaced.  The  spirit  of  the  time  would  deny 
that  God  is  a  Person,  and  holds  man's  personal- 
ity in  slight  esteem,  as  not  rooted  in  the  soul, 
but  in  aggregated  atoms.  The  whole  social 
network,  in  whose  meshes  we  are  all  caught, 
cripples  and  paralyzes  individuality.     We  must 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  131 

belong  to  a  party,  to  a  society,  to  a  ring,  to  a 
clique,  and  deliver  up  our  living  thought  to 
these  soulless  entities.  Or,  if  we  remain  aloof 
from  such  affiliation,  we  must  have  no  honest 
conviction,  no  fixed  principles,  but  fit  our  words 
to  business  and  professional  interests,  and  con- 
form to  the  exigencies  of  the  prevailing  whim. 
The  minister  is  hired  to  preach  not  what  he  be- 
lieves, but  what  the  people  wish  to  hear;  the 
congressman  is  elected  to  vote  not  in  the  light 
of  his  own  mind,  but  in  obedience  to  the  dic- 
tates of  those  who  send  him  ;  the  newspaper 
circulates  not  because  it  is  filled  with  words  of 
truth  and  wisdom,  but  because  it  panders  to  the 
pruriency  and  prejudice  of  its  patrons  ;  and  a 
book  is  popular  in  inverse  ratio  to  its  indi- 
viduality and  worth.  Our  National  Library  is 
filled  with  books  which  have  copyright,  but  no 
other  right,  human  or  divine,  to  exist  at  all ;  and 
when  one  of  us  does  succeed  in  asserting  his 
personality,  he  usually  only  makes  himself  odd 
and  ridiculous.  He  rushes  into  polygamous 
Mormonism,  or  buffoon  revivalism,  or  shallow- 
minded  atheism  ;  nay,  he  will  even  become  an 
anarchist,  because  a  few  men  have  too  much 
money  and  too  little  soul.  What  we  need  is 
neither  the  absence  of  individuality  nor  a  morbid 
individuality,  but  high  and  strong  personalities. 
If  our  country   is   to  be  great   and   forever 


132     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

memorable,  something  quite  other  than  wealth 
and  numbers  will  make  it  so.  Were  there  but 
question  of  countless  millions  of  dollars  and 
people,  then  indeed  the  victory  would  already 
have  been  gained.  If  we  are  to  serve  the 
highest  interests  of  mankind,  and  to  mark  an 
advance  in  human  history,  we  must  do  more 
than  establish  universal  suffrage,  and  teach 
every  child  to  read  and  write.  As  true  criti- 
cism deals  only  with  men  of  genius  or  of  the 
best  talent,  and  takes  no  serious  notice  of 
mechanical  writers  and  book-makers,  so  true 
history  loses  sight  of  nations  whose  only  dis- 
tinction lies  in  their  riches  and  populousness. 

The  noblest  and  most  gifted  men  and  women 
'afe  alone  supremely  interesting  and  abidingly 
memorable.  We  have  already  reached  a  point 
where  we  perceive  the  unreality  of  the  impor- 
tance which  the  chronicles  have  sought  to  give 
to  mere  kings  and  captains.  If  the  king  was  a 
hero,  we  love  him  ;  but  if  he  was  a  sot  or  a 
coward,  his  jewelled  crown  and  purple  robes 
leave  him  as  unconsidered  by  us  as  the  beggar 
in  his  rags.  Whatever  influence,  favorable  or 
unfavorable,  democracy  may  exert  to  make 
easy  or  difficult  the  advent  of  the  noblest  kind 
of  man,  an  age  in  which  the  people  think  and 
rule  will  strip  from  all  sham  greatness  its  trap- 
pings and  tinsel.     The  parade  hero  and  wind}' 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  133 

orator  will  be  gazed  at  and  applauded,  but  they 
are  all  the  while  transparent  and  contemptible. 
The  scientific  spirit,  too,  which  now  prevails,  is 
the  foe  of  all  pretence ;  it  looks  at  things  in 
their  naked  reality,  is  concerned  to  get  a  view 
of  the  fact  as  it  is,  without  a  care  whether  it 
be  a  beautiful  or  an  ugly,  a  sweet  or  a  bitter 
truth.  The  fact  is  what  it  is,  and  nothing  can 
be  gained  by  believing  it  to  be  what  it  is  not. 

This  is  a  most  wise  and  human  way  of  look- 
ing at  things,  if  men  will  only  not  forget  that 
the  mind  sees  farther  than  the  eye,  that  the 
heart  feels  deeper  than  the  hand ;  and  that 
where  knowledge  fails,  faith  is  left;  where  pos- 
session is  denied,  hope  remains.  The  young 
must  enter  upon  their  life-work  with  the  con- 
viction that  only  what  is  real  is  true,  good,  and 
beautiful ;  and  that  the  unreal  is  altogether 
futile  and  vain. 

Now,  the  most  real  thing  for  every  man,  if 
he  is  a  man,  is  his  own  soul.  His  thought,  his 
love,  his  faith,  his  hope,  are  but  his  soul  think- 
ing, loving,  believing,  hoping.  His  joy  and 
misery  are  but  his  soul  glad  or  sad.  Hence,  so 
far  as  we  are  able  to  see  or  argue,  the  essence 
of  reality  is  spiritual ;  and  since  the  soul  is  con- 
scious that  it  is  not  the  supreme  reality,  but  is 
dependent,  illumined  by  a  truth  higher  than 
itself,  nourished   by  a  love  larger  than  its  own, 


134    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

it  nas  a  dim  vision  of  the  Infinite  Being  as 
essentially  real  and  essentially  spiritual.  A 
living  faith  in  this  infinite  spiritual  reality  is 
the  fountain-head  not  only  of  religion,  but  of 
noble  life.  All  wavering  here  is  a  symptom 
of  psychic  paralysis.  When  the  infinite  reality 
becomes  questionable,  then  all  things  become 
material  and  vile.  The  world  becomes  a  world 
of  sight  and  sound,  of  taste  and  touch.  The 
soul  is  poured  through  the  senses  and  dissi- 
pated; the  current  of  life  stagnates,  and  grows 
fetid  in  sloughs  and  marshes.  Minds  for  whom 
God  is  the  Unknowable  have  no  faith  in  knowl- 
edge at  all,  except  as  the  equivalent  of  weight 
and  measure,  of  taste  and  touch  and  smell. 

Now,  if  all  that  may  be  known  and  desired  is 
reduced  to  this  material  expression,  how  dull 
and  beggarly  does  not  life  become,  —  mere 
atomic  integration  and  disintegration,  the  poor 
human  pneumatjc-machine  puffing  along  the 
dusty  road  of  matter,  bound  and  helpless  and 
soulless  as  a  clanking  engine !  No  high  life,  in 
individuals  or  nations,  is  to  be  hoped  for,  unless 
it  is  enrooted  in  the  infinite  spiritual  reality,  — 
in  God.  It  is  forever  indubitable  that  the  high- 
est is  not  material,  and  no  argument  is  therefore 
needed  to  show  that  when  spiritual  ideals  lose 
their  power  of  attraction,  life  sinks  to  lower  beds. 

Sight   is   the    noblest   sense,    and   the  starlit 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  135 

sky  is  the  most  sublime  object  we  can  ^be- 
hold. But  what  do  we  in  reahty  see  there? 
Only  a  kind  of  large  tent,  dimly  lighted  with 
gas  jets.  This  is  the  noblest  thing  the  noblest 
sense  reveals.  But  let  the  soul  appear,  and  the 
tent  flies  into  invisible  shreds ;  the  heavens 
break  open  from  abyss  to  abyss,  still  widening 
into  limitless  expanse,  until  imagination  reels. 
The  gas  jets  grow  into  suns,  blazing  since 
innumerable  ages  with  unendurable  light,  and 
binding  whole  planetary  systems  into  harmony 
and  life.  So  infinitely  does  the  soul  transcend 
the  senses !  The  world  it  lives  in  is  bound- 
less, eternal,  sublime.  This  is  its  home ;  this 
the  sphere  in  which  it  grows,  and  awakens 
to  consciousness  of  kinship  with  God.  This 
is  the  fathomless,  shoreless  abyss  of  being 
wherein  it  is  plunged,  from  which  it  draws  its 
life,  its  yearning  for  the  absolute,  its  undying 
hope,  its  love  of  the  best,  its  craving  for  immor- 
tality, its  instinct  for  eternal  things.  To  con- 
demn it  to  work  merely  for  money,  for  position, 
for  applause,  for  pleasure,  is  to  degrade  it  to 
the  condition  of  a  slave.  It  is  as  though  we 
should  take  some  supreme  poet  or  hero  and  bid 
him  break  stones  or  grind  corn,  —  he  who  has 
the  faculty  to  give  to  truth  its  divinest  form, 
and  to  lift  the  hearts  of  nations  to  the  love  of 
heavenly  things. 


136    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

Whatever  our  lot  on  earth  may  be —  whether 
we  toil  with  the  hand,  with  the  brain,  or  with 
the  heart  —  we  may  not  bind  the  soul  to  any 
slavish  service.  Let  us  do  our  work  like  men, 
—  till  the  soil,  build  homes,  refine  brute  matter, 
be  learned  in  law,  in  medicine,  in  theology;  but 
let  us  never  chain  our  souls  to  what  they  work 
in.  No  earthly  work  can  lay  claim  to  the 
whole  life  of  man ;  for  every  man  is  born  for 
God,  for  the  Universe,  and  may  not  narrow  his 
mind.  We  must  have  some  practical  thing  to 
do  in  the  world,  —  some  way  of  living  which 
will  place  us  in  harmony  with  the  requirements 
and  needs  of  earthly  life;  and  what  this  daily 
business  of  ours  shall  be,  each  one,  in  view  of 
his  endowments  and  surroundings,  must  decide 
for  himself. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  every  kind 
of  life  has  its  advantages,  except  an  immoral 
life.  Whatever  we  make  of  ourselves,  then, — 
whether  farmers,  mechanics,  lawyers,  doctors, 
or  priests,  —  let  us  above  all  things  first  have  a 
care  that  we  are  men;  and  if  we  are  to  be  men, 
our  special  business  work  must  form  only  a 
part  of  our  life-work.  The  aim  —  at  least  in 
this  way  alone  can  I  look  at  human  life  —  is  not 
to  make  rich  and  successful  bankers,  merchants, 
farmers,  lawyers,  and  doctors,  but  to  make  noble 
and  enlightened  men.     Hence  the  final  thought 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  1 37 

in  all  work  is  that  we  work  not  to  have  more, 
but  to  be  more ;  not  for  higher  place,  but  for 
greater  worth ;  not  for  fame,  but  for  knowledge. 
In  a  word,  the  final  thought  is  that  we  labor  to 
upbuild  the  being  which  we  are,  and  not  merely 
to  build  round  our  real  self  with  marble  and 
gold  and  precious  stones.  This  is  but  the 
Christian  teaching  which  has  transformed  the 
world ;  which  declares  that  it  is  the  business  of 
slaves  even,  of  beggars  and  outcasts,  to  work 
first  of  all  for  God  and  the  soul.  The  end  is 
infinite,  the  aim  must  be  the  highest.  Not 
to  know  this,  not  to  hear  the  heavenly  invita- 
tion, is  to  be  shut  out  from  communion  with 
the  best;  is  to  be  cut  off  from  the  source  of 
growth;  is  to  be  given  over  to  modes  of  thought 
which  fatally  lead  to  mediocrity  and  vulgarity 
of  life. 

To  live  for  common  ends  is  to  be  common. 

The  highest  faith  makes  still  the  highest  man  ; 

For  we  grow  like  the  things  our  souls  believe, 

And  rise  or  sink  as  we  aim  high  or  low. 

No  mirror  shows  such  likeness  of  the  face 

As  faith  we  live  by  of  the  heart  and  mind. 

We  are  in  very  truth  that  which  we  love  ; 

And  love,  like  noblest  deeds,  is  born  of  faith. 

The  lover  and  the  hero  reason  not, 

But  they  believe  in  what  they  love  and  do. 

All  else  is  accident, —  this  is  the  soul 

Of  life,  and  lifts  the  whole  man  to  itself, 

Like  a  key-note,  which,  running  through  all  sounds, 

Upbears  them  all  in  perfect  harmony. 


138     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

We  cannot  set  a  limit  to  the  knowledge  and 
love  of  man,  because  they  spring  from  God,  and 
move  forever  toward  him  who  is  without  limit. 
That  we  have  been  made  capable  of  this  cease- 
less approach  to  an  infinite  ideal  is  the  radical 
fact  in  our  nature.  Through  this  we  are  human ; 
through  this  w'e  are  immortal ;  through  this  we 
are  lifted  above  matter,  look  through  the  rip- 
pling stream  of  time  on  the  calm  ocean  of 
eternity,  and  beyond  the  utmost  bounds  of 
space,  see  simple  being,  —  life  and  thought  and 
love,  deathless,  imageless,  absolute.  This  ideal 
creates  the  law  of  duty,  for  it  makes  the  dis- 
tinction between  right  and  wTong.  Hence  the 
first  duty  of  man  is  to  make  himself  like  God, 
through  knowledge  ever-widening,  through  love 
ever-deepening,  through  life  ever-growing. 

So  only  can  we  serve  God,  so  only  can  we 
love  him.  To  be  content  with  ignorance  is  in- 
fidelity to  his  infinite  truth.  To  rest  in  a  lesser 
love  is  to  deny  the  boundless  charity  w^hich 
holds  the  heavens  together  and  makes  them 
beautiful,  which  to  every  creature  gives  its  fel- 
low, which  for  the  young  bird  makes  the  nest, 
for  the  child  the  mother's  breast,  and  in  the 
heart  of  man  sows  the  seed  of  faith  and  hope 
and  heavenly  pity. 

Ceaseless  growth  toward  God,  —  this  is  the 
ideal,  this  is  the  law  of  human  life,  proposed  and 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  1 39 

sanctioned  alike  by  Religion,  Philosophy,  and 
Poetry.  Dulcissuna  vita  seutire  in  dies  se  fieri 
ineliorein. 

Upward  to  move  along  a  Godward  way, 
Where  love  and  knowledge  still  increase, 

And  clouds  and  darkness  yield  to  growing  day, 
Is  more  than  wealth  or  fame  or  peace. 

No  other  blessing  shall  I  ever  ask. 

This  is  the  best  that  life  can  give  ; 
This  only  is  the  soul's  immortal  task 

For  which  't  is  worth  the  pain  to  live. 

It  is  man's  chief  blessedness  that  there  lie  in 
his  nature  infinite  possibilities  of  growth.  The 
growth  of  animals  comes  quickly  to  an  end,  and 
when  they  cease  to  grow  they  cease  to  be  joy- 
ful ;  but  man,  whose  bodily  development  even 
is  slow,  is  capable  of  rising  to  wider  knowledge 
and  purer  love  through  unending  ages.  Hence 
even  when  he  is  old,  —  if  he  has  lived  for  what 
is  great  and  exalted,  —  his  mind  is  clear,  his 
heart  is  tender,  and  his  soul  is  glad.  Only 
those  races  are  noble,  only  those  individuals  are 
worthy,  who  yield  without  reserve  to  the  power 
of  this  impulse  to  ceaseless  progress.  Behold 
how  the  race  from  which  we  have  sprung  —  the 
Aryan  —  breaks  forth  into  ever  new  develop- 
ments of  strength  and  beauty  in  Greece,  in 
Italy,  in  France,  in  England,  in  Germany,  in 
America;    creating    literature,  philosophy,   sci- 


I40    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

ence,  art ;  receiving  Christian  truth,  and  through 
its  aid  rising  to  diviner  heights  of  wisdom,  power, 
freedom,  love,  and  knowledge. 

And  so  there  are  individuals  —  and  they  are 
born  to  teach  and  to  rule  —  for  whom  to  live  is 
to  grow ;  who,  forgetting  what  they  have  been, 
and  what  they  are,  think  ever  only  of  becoming 
more  and  more.  Their  education  is  never  fin- 
ished ;  their  development  is  never  complete ;  their 
work  is  never  done.  From  victories  won  they 
look  to  other  battle-fields ;  from  every  height  of 
knowledge  they  peer  into  the  widening  nesci- 
ence ;  from  all  achievements  and  possessions 
they  turn  away  toward  the  unapproachable  In- 
finite, to  whom  they  are  drawn.  Walking  in 
the  shadow  of  the  too  great  light  of  God,  they 
are  illumined,  and  they  are  darkened.  This 
makes  Newton  think  his  knowledge  ignorance ; 
this  makes  Saint  Paul  think  his  heroic  virtue 
naught.  Oh,  blessed  men,  who  make  us  feel 
that  we  are  of  the  race  of  God ;  who  measure 
and  weigh  the  heavens ;  who  love  with  bound- 
less love ;  who  toil  and  are  patient ;  who  teach 
us  that  workers  can  wait !  They  are  in  love 
with  life  ;  they  yearn  for  fuller  life.  Life  is  good, 
and  the  highest  life  is  God;  and  wherever  man 
grows  in  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  strength,  in 
faith,  hope,  and  love,  he  walks  in  the  way  of 
heaven. 


GROWTH  AND  DUTY.  141 

To  you,  young  gentlemen,  who  are  about  to 
quit  these  halls,  to  continue  amid  other  sur- 
roundings the  work  of  education  which  here  has 
but  begun,  what  words  shall  I  more  directly 
speak?  If  hitherto  you  have  wrought  to  any 
purpose,  you  will  go  forth  into  the  world  filled 
with  resolute  will  and  noble  enthusiasm  to  labor 
even  unto  the  end  in  building  up  the  being 
which  is  yourself,  that  you  may  unceasingly  ap- 
proach the  type  of  perfect  manhood.  This 
deep-glowing  fervor  of  enthusiasm  for  what  is 
highest  and  best  is  worth  more  to  you,  and 
to  any  man,  than  all  that  may  be  learned  in 
colleges.  If  ambition  is  akin  to  pride,  and 
therefore  to  folly,  it  is  none  the  less  a  mighty 
spur  to  noble  action;  and  where  it  is  not  found 
in  youth,  budding  and  blossoming  like  the  leaves 
and  flowers  in  spring,  what  promise  is  there  of 
the  ripe  fruit  which  nourishes  life?  The  love  of 
excellence  bears  us  up  on  the  swift  wing  and 
plumes  of  high  desire,  — 

Without  which  whosoe'er  consumes  his  days, 
Leaveth  such  vestige  of  himself  on  earth 
As  smoke  in  air  or  foam  upon  the  wave. 

Do  not  place  before  your  eyes  the  standard 
of  vulgar  success.  Do  not  say,  I  will  study,  la- 
bor, exercise  myself,  that  I  may  become  able  to 
get  wealth  or  office,  for  to  this  kind  of  work 
the  necessities  of  life  and  the  tendency  of  tlic 


142     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

age  will  drive  you ;  whereas,  if  you  hope  to  be 
true  and  high,  it  is  your  business  to  hold  your- 
selves above  the  spirit  of  the  age.  It  is  our 
worst  misfortune  that  we  have  no  ideals.  Our 
very  religion,  it  would  seem,  is  not  able  to 
give  us  a  living  faith  in  the  reality  of  ideals ; 
for  we  are  no  longer  wholly  convinced  that 
souls  live  in  the  atmosphere  of  God  as  truly  as 
lungs  breathe  the  air  of  earth.  We  find  it 
difficult  even  to  think  of  striving  for  what  is 
eternal,  all-holy,  and  perfect,  so  unreal,  so  delu- 
sive do  such  thoughts  seem. 

Who  will  understand  that  to  be  is  better  than 
to  have,  and  that  in  truth  a  man  is  worth  only 
what  he  is?  Who  will  believe  that  the  kingdom 
of  this  world,  not  less  than  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  lies  within?  Who,  even  in  thinking  of 
the  worth  of  a  pious  and  righteous  life,  is  not 
swayed  by  some  sort  of  honesty-best-policy 
principle?  We  love  knowledge  because  we 
think  it  is  power;  and  virtue,  because  we  are 
told  as  a  rule  it  succeeds.  Ah  !  do  you  love 
knowledge  for  itself  ?  —  for  it  is  good,  it  is 
godlike  to  know.  Do  you  love  virtue  for  its 
own  sake?  —  for  it  is  eternally  and  absolutely 
right  to  be  virtuous.  Instead  of  giving  your 
thoughts  and  desires  to  wealth  and  position, 
learn  to  know  how  little  of  such  things  a  true 
and  wise  man  needs ;   for  the  secret  of  a  happy 


GROWTH  AND   DUTY.  1 43 

life  does  not  lie  in  the  means  and  opportunities 
of  indulging  our  weaknesses,  but  in  knowing 
how  to  be  content  with  what  is  reasonable,  that 
time  and  strength  may  remain  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  our  nobler  nature.  Ask  God  to  inspire 
you  with  some  great  thought,  some  abiding 
love  of  what  is  excellent,  which  may  fill  you 
with  gladness  and  courage,  and  in  the  midst  of 
the  labors,  the  trials,  and  the  disappointments 
of  life,  keep  you  still  strong  and  serene. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

RIGHT   HUMAN   LIFE. 

What  do  we  gather  hence  but  firmer  faith 

That  every  gift  of  noble  origin 

Is  breathed  upon  by  Hope's  perpetual  breath; 

That  virtue  and  the  faculties  within 

Are  vital ,  and  that  riches  are  akin 

To  fear,  to  change,  to  cowardice,  and  death  ? 

Wordsworth. 

WHAT  is  so  delightful  as  spring  weather? 
To  it,  whatever  mystery  life  can  make 
plain,  it  reveals.  There  is  universal  utterance. 
Water  leaps  from  its  winding  sheet  of  snow ;  the 
streams  spring  out  to  wander  till  they  find  their 
source ;  the  corn  sprouts  to  receive  the  sun's 
warm  kiss ;  the  buds  unfold,  the  blossoms  send 
forth  fragrance,  the  heavens  weep  for  joy;  the 
birds  sing,  the  children  shout,  and  the  fuller 
pulse  of  life  gives,  even  to  the  old,  fresh  thoughts 
and  young  desires.  Now,  what  is  all  this  but  a 
symbol  of  the  soul,  which  feels  the  urgency  of 
God  calling  upon  it  to  make  itself  alive  in  him 
and  in  his  universe  of  truth  and  beauty? 

But  the  season  of  growth  is  also  the  time  of 
blight.     A  hundred  germs  perish  for  one  that 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 45 

ripens  into  wholesome  fruit;  a  hundred  young 
Uves  suffer  physical  or  moral  ruin  for  one  that 
develops  into  some  likeness  of  true  manhood. 
And  upon  what  slight  causes  success  or  failure 
seems  to  depend ! 

As  a  mere  word,  a  glance,  will  bring  the 
blood  to  a  maiden's  cheek,  so  may  it  sow  the 
germ  of  moral  death  in  the  heart  of  youth. 
How  helpless  and  ignorant  the  young  are  in 
their  seeming  strength  and  smartness :  how  self- 
sufficient  in  their  unwisdom,  how  little  amenable 
to  reason,  how  slow  to  perceive  true  ideals. 
What  patient,  persevering  effort  is  required  to 
form  character,  and  what  a  little  thing  will  poi- 
son irfe  in  its  source!  How  easy  it  is  to  see 
and  understand  what  is  coarse  and  evil,  how 
difificult  to  appreciate  what  is  pure  and  excel- 
lent. How  quickly  a  boy  learns  to  find  pleasure 
in  what  is  animal  or  brutal ;  but  what  infinite 
pains  must  be  taken  before  he  is  won  to  the^. 
love  of  truth  and  goodness.  Caricature  delights 
him,  and  he  has  no  eyes  for  the  chaste  beauty 
of  perfect  art.  The  story  of  an  outlaw  fills  him 
with  enthusiasm,  and  the  heroic  struggles  of 
godlike  souls  are  for  him  meaningless.  He 
gazes  with  envious  awe  upon  some  vulgar  rich 
man,  and  finds  a  philosopher,  or  a  saint,  only 
queer.  He  studies  because  he  has  been  sent  to 
school,  where  ignorance  will  expose  him  to  ridi- 
^  10 


146    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

cule  and  humiliation,  and  possibly  too,  because 
he  is  told  that  knowledge  will  help  him  to  win 
money  and  influence.  However  great  his  pro- 
ficiency, he  is  in  truth  but  a  barbarian,  without 
wisdom,  without  reverence,  without  gentleness. 
He  has  been  brought  only  in  a  vague  way  into 
communion  with  the  conscious  life  of  the  race ; 
he  has  no  true  conception  of  the  dignity  of 
souls,  no  sense  of  the  beauty  of  modest  and 
unselfish  action.  He  mistakes  rudeness  for 
strength,  boastfulness  for  ability,  disrespect  for 
independence,  profanity  for  manliness,  brutality 
for  courage. 

And  to  add  to  his  misfortune,  he  is  blind  to 
his  own  weakness  and  ignorance.  A  sneer  or  a 
jest  is  his  reply  to  the  voice  of  wisdom,  as  with  a 
light  heart  he  walks  in  the  road  to  ruin ;  and 
thus  it  happens  that  for  one  who  becomes  a 
true  and  noble  man,  a  hundred  go  astray  or  sink 
into  an  unintelligent  and  vulgar  kind  of  life. 
This  fact  is  concealed  from  the  eyes  of  the 
young,  from  the  eyes  of  the  multitude,  indeed. 
As  we  hide  the  dead  in  the  earth  that  we  may 
quickly  forget  our  loss,  so  society  buries  from 
sight  and  thought  those  who  fail.  Their  num- 
ber is  so  great  that  the  oblivion  which  soon 
overwhelms  them  is  needful  to  save  even  the 
brave  from  discouragement.  Of  a  hundred  col- 
lege boys  the  lives  of  twenty-five  will  be  ruined 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 47 

by  dissipation,  by  sensual  indulgence ;  twenty- 
five  others  will  be  wrecked  by  unhappy  mar- 
riages, foolish  financial  schemes,  dishonesty  and 
indolence;  of  the  remaining  fifty,  forty,  let  us 
say,  will  manage  to  get  on  without  loss  of  re- 
spectability, while  the  ten  (who  are  still  left) 
will  win  a  sort  of  notoriety  by  getting  rich  or 
by  getting  elected  to  office.  Of  the  hundred 
will  one  become  a  saint,  a  philosopher,  a  poet, 
a  statesman,  or  even  a  man  of  superior  ability 
in  natural  knowledge  or  literature?  And  if  this 
estimate  is  rightly  made  they  all  fail ;  and  the 
emergence  of  a  high  and  noble  mind  is  so  im- 
probable that  it  may  almost  be  looked  upon, 
like  the  birth  of  a  genius,  as  an  accident,  so  im- 
possible is  it,  with  our  limited  view,  to  bring 
such  cases  within  the  domain  of  law.  These 
hundred  college  boys  have  been  taken  from  a 
thousand  youths.  The  nine  hundred  have  re- 
mained outside  the  doors  which  open  into  the 
halls  of  culture,  away  from  the  special  influences 
which  thought  and  ingenuity  have  created  to 
develop  and  perfect  man's  endowments.  As 
they  are  less  favored,  we  demand  less  of  them, 
and  are  content  to  have  them  reinforce  the  un- 
enlightened army  of  laborers  and  money-getters. 
But  when  we  come  among  those  to  whom  leisure 
and  opportunity  are  given  that  they  may  learn 
to  think  truly  and  to  act  nobly,  and  find  that 


148     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

they  fail  in  this,  as  nearly  all  of  them  do  fail,  we 
are  disappointed  and  saddened.  The  thought- 
less imagine  that  those  who  provide  food  and 
shelter  do  the  most  important  work  ;  but  such 
work  is  the  most  important  only  where  there  is 
no  intellectual,  moral,  or  religious  life.  That 
is  most  necessary  which  nourishes  the  highest 
faculty,  and  wherever  civilization  exists,  en- 
lightened minds  and  great  characters  are  in- 
dispensable. The  animal  and  the  savage,  with- 
out much  difficulty,  find  what  satisfies  appetite ; 
but  God  appoints  that  only  living  souls  shall 
provide  what  keeps  souls  alive.  Now  this  soul- 
life,  which  manifests  itself  in  thought,  in  conduct, 
in  hope,  faith,  and  love,  makes  us  human  and 
lifts  us  above  every  other  kind  of  earthly  exist- 
ence. It  is  our  distinctive  attribute,  the  godlike 
side  of  our  being,  which,  under  penalty  of  sinking 
to  lower  worlds,  we  must  bring  out  and  cultivate. 
The  plant  is  alive.  By  its  own  energy  it  springs 
from  darkness,  it  grows,  it  waves  its  green  leaves 
beneath  the  blue  heavens ;  but  it  is  blind,  deaf 
and  dumb,  senseless,  dead  to  the  world  of  sight 
and  sound,  of  taste  and  smell.  The  animal  too 
is  alive,  and  in  a  higher  way  :  for  all  the  glories 
of  Nature  are  painted  upon  its  eye  ;  all  sounds 
strike  upon  its  ear;  it  moves  about  and  has  all 
the  sensations  of  physical  pleasure  of  which  man 
is  capable ;   but  it  is  without  thought,  without 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE  1 49 

sense  of  right  and  wrong,  without  imagination, 
without  hope  and  faith.  It  is  plain  then  that 
human  life,  in  its  highest  sense,  is  Hfe  of  the 
soul,  —  a  life  of  thought  and  love,  of  faith  and 
hope,  of  imagination  and  desire  ;  and  men  are 
high  or  low  as  they  partake  more  or  less  of  this 
true  life.  By  this  standard,  and  by  no  other, 
reason  requires  that  we  form  an  estimate  of 
human  worth.  To  be  a  king,  to  have  money, 
to  live  in  splendor,  to  meet  with  approval  from 
few  or  many,  —  is  accidental,  is  something  which 
may  happen  to  an  ignorant,  a  heartless,  a  de- 
praved, a  vulgar  man.  The  most  vicious  and 
brutal  of  men  have,  again  and  again,  held  the 
most  exalted  positions,  and  as  a  rule  cringing 
and  lying,  trickery  and  robbery,  or  speculation 
and  gambling,  have  been  and  are  the  means  by 
which  great  fortunes  are  acquired.  Position, 
then,  and  money  are  distinguishable  from  worth  ; 
and  they  may  be  and  often  are  found  where  the 
life  of  thought  and  love,  of  faith  and  hope,  of 
imagination  and  desire,  is  almost  wholly  want- 
ing. Now,  it  is  this  life  —  the  only  true  human 
life  —  which  education  should  bring  forth  and 
strengthen ;  and  the  failure  to  lead  this  life,  of 
those  who  pass  through  our  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, is  a  subject  of  deep  concern  for  all  who 
observe  and  reflect ;  for  among  them  we  look  for 
the  leaders  who  shall  cause  wisdom  and  good- 


150    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

ness  to  prevail  over  ignorance  and  appetite.  If 
those  who  receive  the  best  nurture  and  care 
remain  on  the  low  plains  of  a  hardly  more  than 
animal  existence,  what  hope  is  there  that  the 
multitude  shall  rise  to  nobler  ways  of  living? 

There  is  question  here  of  the  most  vital  in- 
terests ;  and  if  we  discover  the  causes  of  the  evil, 
a  remedy  may  be  found.  These  causes  of  fail- 
ure lie  partly  in  our  environment  and  partly 
within  ourselves.  In  the  home,  in  which  we 
receive  the  first  and  the  most  enduring  impres- 
sions, true  views  and  noble  aims  are  frequently 
wanting;  and  thus  false  and  low  estimates  of 
life  are  formed  at  a  time  when  what  we  learn 
sinks  into  the  very  substance  of  the  mind,  and 
colors  and  shapes  all  our  future  seeing  and  lov- 
ing. This  primal  experience  accompanies  us, 
and  hangs  about  us  like  a  mist  to  shut  out  the 
view  of  fairer  worlds.  Enthusiasm  for  intellect- 
ual and  moral  excellence  is  never  roused,  be- 
cause our  young  souls  were  not  made  magnetic 
by  the  words  and  deeds  of  those  whom  we 
looked  up  to  as  gods.  Fortunate  is  he  who 
bears  with  him  into  the  life-struggle  pure  memo- 
ries of  a  happy  home.  When  I  think  of  the 
bees  I  have  seen  coming  back  to  the  hive, 
honey-laden,  in  the  golden  light  of  setting  suns, 
when  I  was  a  boy  at  home,  a  feeling  comes  over 
me  as  though  I  had  lived  in  paradise  and  been 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 5  I 

driven  forth  into  a  bleak  world.  When  one  is 
young,  and  one's  father  and  mother  are  full  of 
health  and  joy;  when  the  roses  are  blooming 
and  the  brooks  are  laughing  to  themselves  from 
simple  gladness,  and  the  floating  clouds  and  the 
silent  stars  seem  to  have  human  thoughts,  — 
what  more  could  we  ask  of  God  but  to  know 
that  all  this  is  eternal,  and  is  from  him? 

In  such  a  mood,  how  easy  it  is  to  turn  the 
childlike  soul  to  the  world  of  spiritual  and 
immortal  things.  With  what  efficacy  then  a 
mother's  soft  voice  teaches  us  that  we  were 
born  upon  this  earth  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  know  truth,  to  love  goodness,  to  do  right, 
that  so,  having  made  ourselves  godlike,  we  may 
forever  be  with  God.  And  if  these  high  les- 
sons blend  in  our  thought  with  memories  which 
make  home  a  type  of  heaven,  how  shall  they 
not  through  life  be  a  spur  to  noble  endeavor  to 
accomplish  the  task  thus  set  us?  When  great- 
hearted, high-souled  boys  go  forth  to  college 
from  homes  of  intelligence  and  love,  then  is 
there  well-founded  hope  that  they  shall  grow  to 
be  wise  and  helpful  men,  who  kQow  and  teach 
truth,  who  see  and  create  beauty,  who  do  and 
make  others  do  what  becomes  a  man.  Of 
hardly  less  importance  is  the  neighborhood  in 
which  our  early  years  are  passed,  and  next  to 
the  companionship  of  the  home  fireside,  a  boy's 


152     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE, 

best  neighbor  is  Nature,  Well  for  him  shall  it 
be,  if,  like  colts  and  calves,  and  all  happy  young 
things,  he  is  permitted  to  breath  the  wholesome 
air  of  woods  and  fields,  to  drink  from  flowing 
streams,  to  lie  in  the  shade  of  trees  on  the  green 
sward,  or  to  stand  alone  beneath  the  silent  star- 
lit heavens  until  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the 
infinite  and  eternal  sink  deep  into  his  soul,  and 
make  it  impossible  that  he  should  ever  look 
upon  the  universe  of  time  and  space,  or  the 
universe  of  duty's  law  within  his  breast,  in  a 
shallow  or  irreverent  spirit.  Little  shall  be  said 
to  him,  and  little  shall  he  speak,  and  to  the  in- 
observant he  shall  seem  dull ;  but  he  is  Nature's 
nursling,  and  she  paints  her  colors  on  his  brain 
and  infuses  her  strength  into  his  heart.  She 
hardens  him  and  teaches  him  patience ;  she 
shows  him  real  things,  fills  him  with  the  love  of 
truth,  and  makes  him  understand  that  sham  is 
shame. 

His  progress  may  be  slow ;  but  he  will  perse- 
vere, he  will  have  faith  in  the  power  of  labor 
and  of  time,  and  when  in  after  years  we  shall 
look  about  for  a  man  with  some  Diogenes'  lan- 
tern, there  are  a  thousand  chances  to  one  that 
when  we  find  him  we  shall  find  him  country- 
born,  not  city-bred.  Too  soon  is  the  town-boy 
made  self-conscious;  he  is  precocious;  all  the 
tricks  and  devices  of  civilization  are  known  to 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 53 

him ;  all  artifices  and  contrivances  he  sees  in 
shop-windows ;  the  street,  the  theatre,  the  news- 
paper are  the  rivals  of  the  home,  and  they 
quickly  teach  him  irreverence  and  disobedience. 
He  loses  innocence,  experience  of  evil  gives 
him  flippant  views.  He  becomes  wise  in  his 
own  conceit ;  having  eyes  only  for  the  surfaces 
of  things,  he  easily  persuades  himself  that  he 
knows  all.  Of  such  a  youth  how  shall  any  col- 
lege make  an  enlightened,  a  noble,  and  a  rever- 
ent man?  But  the  home  and  the  neighborhood 
are  not  our  whole  environment.  As  we  are 
immersed  in  an  atmospheric  ocean,  so  do  we 
swim  in  the  current  of  our  national  life.  To 
praise  this  life  is  easy.  We  all  see  and  feel  how 
vigorous  it  is,  how  confident,  how  eager.  Here 
is  a  world  of  busy  men  and  women,  active  in 
many  directions.  They  found  States,  they  build 
cities,  they  create  wealth,  they  discuss  all  prob- 
lems, they  try  all  experiments,  they  hurry  on  to 
new  tasks,  and  think  they  have  done  nothing 
while  aught  remains  to  do. 

They  live  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  of 
ever- recurring  elections,  of  speculation,  of  finan- 
cial schemes  and  commercial  enterprises.  It  is  an 
unrestful,  feverish,  practical  life,  in  which  all  the 
strong  natures  are  thinking  of  doing  something, 
of  gaining  something,  —  a  life  in  the  market-place, 
where  high  thought  and  noble  conduct  are  all  but 


154    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER   LIFE. 

impossible,  where  the  effort  to  make  one's  self  a 
man,  instead  of  striving  to  get  so  many  thousands 
of  money,  would  seem  ridiculous.  It  is  a  life  of 
inventions  and  manufactures,  of  getting  and 
spending,  in  which  we  bring  forth  and  consume 
in  a  single  century  what  it  has  taken  Nature 
many  thousand  years  to  hoard.  Our  aim  is  to 
have  more  rather  than  to  be  more ;  our  ideal  is 
that  of  material  progress;  our  praise  is  given  to 
those  who  invent  and  discover  the  means  of 
augmenting  wealth.  Liberty  is  opportunity  to 
get  rich ;  education  is  the  development  of  the 
money-getting  faculty.  Our  national  life  may, 
of  course,  be  looked  at  from  many  sides,  but  the 
general  drift  of  opinion  and  effort  is  in  the  di- 
rection here  pointed  out.  Nine  tenths  of  our 
thought  and  energy  are  given  to  material  in- 
terests, and  these  interests  represent  nine  tenths 
of  our  achievements.  This  may  be  true  of  men 
in  general,  it  may  be  true  also  that  material 
progress  is  a  condition  of  moral  and  intellectual 
growth ;  but  none  the  less  is  it  true  that  right 
human  life  is  a  life  of  thought  and  love,  of  hope 
and  faith,  of  imagination  and  desire.  Conse- 
quently in  a  well-ordered  society,  the  chief  aim  — 
nine  tenths  of  all  effort,  let  us  say  —  will  have  for 
its  object  the  creation  of  enlightened  and  loving 
men  and  women,  whom  faith  and  hope  shall 
make   strong,   whom   imagination   shall   refresh, 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  I  5  5 

and  the  desire  of  perfection  shall  keep  active. 
The  aims  which  the  ideals  of  democracy  suggest 
are  not  wholly  or  chiefly  material.  We  strive, 
indeed,  to  create  a  social  condition  in  which 
comfort  and  plenty  shall  be  within  the  reach  of 
all ;  but  the  better  among  us  understand  that 
this  is  but  an  inferior  part  of  our  work,  and 
they  take  no  delight  whatever  in  our  great  for- 
tunes and  great  cities.  If  democracy  is  the  best 
government,  it  follows  that  it  is  the  kind  of  gov- 
ernment which  is  most  favorable  to  virtue,  in- 
telligence, and  religion.  It  is  faint  praise  to  say 
that  in  America  there  is  more  enterprise,  more 
wealth,  than  elsewhere.  What  we  should  strive 
to  make  ourselves  able  to  say,  is,  that  there  is 
here  a  more  truly  human  life,  more  public  and 
private  honesty,  purity,  sympathy,  and  helpful- 
ness ;  more  love  of  knowledge,  more  perfect 
openness  to  light,  greater  desire  to  learn,  and 
greater  willingness  to  accept  truth  than  is  to  be 
found  elsewhere.  It  should  be  our  endeavor  to 
create  a  world  of  which  it  may  be  said,  there 
life  is  more  pleasant,  beauty  more  highly  prized, 
goodness  held  in  greater  reverence,  the  sense  of 
honor  finer,  the  recognition  of  talent  and  worth 
completer  than  elsewhere. 

Wealth  and  population  should  be  considered 
merely  as  means,  which,  if  we  ourselves  do  not 
sink  beneath  our  fortune,  we  shall  use  to  help 


156    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

US  to  develop  on  a  vast  scale,  a  nobler,  freer, 
and  fairer  life  than  hitherto  has  ever  existed. 
We  Americans  have  a  great  capacity  for  seeing 
things  as  they  are.  A  thousand  shams  and 
glittering  vanities  have  gone  down  before  our 
straight-looking  eyes;  and  because  such  things 
fail  to  impress  us,  we  seem  to  be  irreverent. 
We  must  look  more  steadfastly,  deeper  still, 
until  w^e  clearly  perceive  and  understand  that 
to  live  for  money  is  to  lead  a  false  and  vulgar 
life,  to  rest  with  complacency  in  mere  numbers 
is  to  have  a  superficial  and  unreal  mind.  To 
form  a  right  judgment  of  a  people,  as  of  in- 
dividuals, we  must  consider  what  they  are ;  not 
what  they  have,  except  in  so  far  as  their  pos- 
sessions are  the  result  of  work  which  at  once 
forms  and  reveals  character.  And  we  must 
know  that  work  is  good  only  in  as  much  as  it 
helps  to  make  life  human,  —  that  is,  intelligent, 
moral  and  religious.  And  what  we  have  the 
right  to  demand  of  those  to  whom  we  give  a 
higher  education  is,  that  they  shall  body  forth 
these  principles  in  their  lives  and  become  lead- 
ers in  the  task  of  spreading  them  among  the 
multitude.  We  demand,  first  of  all,  that  they 
become  men  whose  hearts  are  pure  and  loving, 
whose  minds  are  open  and  enlightened,  whose 
motives  are  benevolent  and  generous,  whose 
purposes  are  high  and   religious ;   and   if  they 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  I  5  7 

are  such  men,  it  shall  matter  little  to  what 
special  pursuits  they  turn,  for  whatever  their 
occupation,  honor,  truth,  and  intelligence  shall 
go  with  them,  bearing,  like  mercy,  a  blessing  for 
those  who  give  and  a  blessing  for  those  who 
receive.  The  spirit  in  which  they  work  shall 
be  more  than  what  they  do,  as  they  themselves 
shall  be  more  than  what  they  accomplish. 

A  right  spirit  transforms  the  whole  man,  and 
the  first  and  highest  aim  of  the  educator  should 
be  to  impart  a  new  heart,  a  new  purpose,  which 
shall  bring  into  play  forces  that  may  oppose 
and  overcome  those  faults  of  the  young  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  and  which,  if  not  corrected,  lead 
to  failure. 

And  here  we  come  to  the  causes  of  ill  success 
which  lie  within  ourselves.  We  have  our  in- 
dividual qualities  and  defects,  and  we  have  also 
the  qualities  and  defects  of  the  people  whence 
we  are  sprung,  and  of  the  time-spirit  into  which 
we  are  born.  It  is  the  aim  of  education,  as  it 
is  the  aim  of  religion,  to  lift  us  above  the  spirit 
of  the  age ;  but  in  attempting  to  do  this,  they 
who  lose  sight  of  what  is  true  and  beneficent 
in  that  spirit,  commit  a  serious  blunder.  A  na- 
tional spirit,  too,  is  a  narrow,  and  often  a  harsh 
and  selfish  spirit;  but  when  culture  and  religion 
strive  to  make  us  citizens  of  the  world  and 
universally  benevolent,  a  care   must  be  had  that 


158     EDUCATION  AND   THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

we  retain  what  is  strong  and  noble  in  the  char- 
acter we  inherit  from  our  ancestors. 

The  lover  of  intellectual  excellence,  however, 
is  little  inclined  to  dwell  with  complacency 
either  upon  his  own  qualities,  or  upon  the  great- 
ness of  his  country  or  his  age.  The  untaught 
optimism  which  leads  the  crowd  to  exaggerate 
the  worth  of  whatever  they  in  any  way  identify 
with  themselves,  he  looks  upon  with  suspicion, 
if  not  with  aversion.  Self-complacency  is  pleas- 
ant; but  truth  alone  is  good,  and  they  who  think 
least  are  best  content  with  themselves  and  with 
their  world.  He  who  seeks  to  improve  his 
mind,  neither  boasts  of  his  age  and  country,  nor 
rails  at  them ;  but  tries  to  understand  them  as 
he  tries  to  know  himself  The  important  knowl- 
edge here  is  of  obstacles  and  defects ;  for  when 
these  are  removed,  to  advance  is  easy.  The 
first  lesson  which  we  must  learn  is  that  in  the 
work  of  mental  culture,  time  and  patience  are 
necessary  elements.  The  young,  who  are  eager 
and  restless,  find  it  difficult  to  work  with  pa- 
tience and  perseverance,  especially  when  the 
reward  of  labor  is  remote,  and  in  the  excitement 
and  hurry  of  American  life,  such  work  often 
seems  to  be  impossible.  But  by  this  kind  of 
work  alone  can  true  culture  be  acquired.  It  is 
this  Buffon  means  when  he  calls  genius  a  great 
capacity  for  taking  pains.     When  Albert  Diirer 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 59 

said,  "  Sir,  it  cannot  be  better  done ;  "  he 
simply  meant  that  he  had  bestowed  infinite 
pains  upon  his  work.  Now,  they  who  are  in  a 
hurry  cannot  take  pains ;  and  they  who  work 
for  money  will  take  pains  only  in  so  far  as  it  is 
profitable  to  do  so.  We  must  live  in  our  work 
and  love  it  for  its  own  sake.  To  do  work  we 
love  makes  us  happy,  makes  us  free,  and  ac- 
cording to  its  kind  educates  us;  and  whatever 
its  kind,  it  will  at  least  teach  us  the  sovereign 
virtue  of  patience,  and  give  us  something  of  the 
spirit  of  the  old  masters  who  in  dingy  shops 
ceased  not  from  labor,  and  kept  their  cheerful 
serenity  to  the  end,  though  the  outcome  was 
only  the  most  perfect  fiddle,  or  a  deathless  head. 
But  they  themselves  had  the  souls  of  artists, 
and  were  honest  men,  who  in  their  work  found 
joy  and  freedom,  and  therefore  what  they  did 
remains  as  a  source  of  delight  and  inspiration. 
If  we  find  it  impossible  to  put  our  hearts  into 
our  work  and  consequently  impossible  to  take 
infinite  pains  with  it,  then  this  is  work  for  which 
we  were  not  born.  The  impatient  cannot  love 
the  labor  by  which  the  mind  is  cultivated,  be- 
cause impatience  implies  a  sense  of  restraint,  a 
lack  of  freedom.  They  are  restless,  easily  grow 
weary  or  despondent,  find  fault  with  themselves 
and  their  task,  and  either  throw  oft*  the  yoke  or 
bear  it  in  a  spirit  of  disappointment  and  bitter- 


l60    EDUCATION  AND    THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 

ness.  As  they  fail  to  make  themselves  strong 
and  serene,  their  work  bears  the  marks  of  haste 
and  feebleness,  for  work  reveals  character;  it 
is  the  likeness  of  the  doer,  as  style  shows  the 
man.  Then  the  young  are  blinded  by  the 
glitter  and  glare  of  life,  by  the  splendors  of  posi- 
tion and  wealth;  they  are  drawn  to  what  is 
external;  they  would  be  here  and  there;  they 
love  the  unchartered  liberty  of  chance  desires, 
and  are  easily  brought  to  look  upon  the  task 
of  self-improvement  as  a  slavish  work.  They 
would  have  done  with  study  that  they  may  be 
free,  may  enter  into  what  they  suppose  to  be  a 
fair  and  rich  heritage.  They  cannot  understand 
that  so  long  as  they  are  narrow,  sensual,  and  un- 
enlightened, the  possession  of  a  world  could  not 
make  them  high  or  happy.  They  do  not  know 
that  to  have  liberty,  without  the  power  of  using 
it  for  worthy  ends,  is  a  curse  not  a  blessing. 
They  imagine  that  experience  of  the  world's 
ways  and  wickedness  will  make  them  wise, 
whereas  it  will  make  them  depraved. 

How  can  they  realize  that  the  good  of  life 
consists  in  being,  and  not  in  having?  that  we 
are  worth  what  our  knowledge,  love,  admiration, 
hope,  faith,  and  desire  make  us  worth?  They 
will  not  perceive  that  happiness  and  unhappi- 
ness  are  conditions  of  soul,  and  consequently 
that  the  wise,  the  loving,  and  the  strong,  what- 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  l6l 

ever  their  outward  fortune,  are  happy,  while  the 
ignorant,  the  heartless,  and  the  weak  are  miser- 
able. To  know  ourselves,  we  should  seek  to 
discover  the  kind  of  life  our  influence  tends  to 
create.  Consider  the  kind  of  world  college  boys 
make  for  themselves,  the  things  they  admire, 
the  companions  they  find  pleasant,  the  subjects 
in  which  they  take  interest,  the  books  that  de- 
light them,  —  and  one  great  cause  of  the  failure 
of  education  will  be  made  plain;  for  though  they 
are  sent  to  school  to  be  taught  by  professors, 
their  influence  upon  one  another  is  paramount. 
Instead  of  helping  one  another  to  see  that  their 
real  business  is  to  educate  themselves,  they 
persuade  one  another  that  life  is  given  for  com- 
mon ends  and  vulgar  pleasures.  Hence  they 
look  with  envy  upon  their  companions  who  are 
the  sons  of  rich  men,  as  they  have  not  lived 
long  enough  to  learn  that  the  fate  of  four  fifths 
of  the  sons  of  rich  men  in  this  country,  is  moral 
and  physical  ruin.  If  such  is  the  public  opinion 
of  the  world  in  which  they  live ;  and  if  even 
strong  men  are  feeble  in  the  presence  of  public 
opinion,  — how  shall  we  find  fault  with  them  for 
not  being  attracted  by  the  ideals  of  intellectual 
and  moral  excellence.  For  the  trained  mind 
even  to  think  is  difficult,  and  for  them  indepen- 
dent thought  is  almost  impossible.  They  do  not 
know  the  little  less  than  creative  power  of  right 
II 


1 62     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

education,  or  that  as  we  are  changed  by  action, 
we  are  transformed  by  thought.  What  patient 
labor  may  do  to  exalt  and  refine  the  mental 
faculties,  until  we  become  capable  of  entering 
into  the  life  of  every  age  and  every  people,  has 
not  been  shown  to  them ;  and  hence  they  are 
not  inspired  by  the  high  hope  of  dwelling,  in 
very  truth,  with  all  the  noble  and  heroic  souls 
who  have  passed  through  this  world  and  left 
record  of  themselves.  We  bid  the  youth  learn 
many  things  which  he  cannot  but  find  both  use- 
less and  uninteresting.  And  yet  unless  we  dis- 
cover the  secret  of  winning  him  to  the  love  of 
study,  the  educational  value  of  what  he  learns  is 
lost  ;  for  what  leaves  him  unmoved,  leaves  him 
unimproved.  His  information  and  accomplish- 
ments are  comparatively  unimportant.  What 
he  himself  is,  and  what  his  real  self  gives  us 
grounds  for  hoping  he  shall  become,  is  the  true 
concern.  To  be  able  to  translate  ^schylus  or 
Plato  is  not  a  great  thing ;  but  it  is  a  great  thing 
to  have  the  Greek's  sense  of  what  is  fair,  noble 
and  intellectual.  To  be  able  to  solve  a  complex 
mathematical  problem  may  be  unimportant; 
but  to  have  the  mental  habit  of  accurate,  close, 
patient  thinking  is  important.  It  is  easy  to  for- 
get one's  Greek  or  the  higher  mathematics ;  but 
an  intellectual  or  a  moral  habit  is  not  easily 
lost. 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 63 

He  who  has  right  habits  will  go  farther  and 
rise  higher  than  he  who  has  only  brilliant  at- 
tainments. It  is  an  error,  and  a  very  common 
one,  to  suppose  that  education  is  merely,  or 
chiefly,  a  mental  process,  and  consequently  that 
the  best  school  is  that  in  which  the  various 
kinds  of  knowledge  are  best  taught.  Our  whole 
being,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  is  sub- 
ject to  the  law  of  education.  We  may  educate 
the  eye,  the  ear,  the  hand,  the  foot ;  and  each 
member  of  the  body  may  be  trained  in  many 
ways.  The  eye  of  the  microscopist  has  received 
a  training  different  from  that  of  the  painter;  the 
sculptor's  hand  has  been  taught  a  cunning  un- 
like that  of  the  surgeon  ;  the  voice  of  the  orator 
is  developed  in  one  way,  that  of  the  singer  in 
another.  And  so  the  faculties  of  the  mind  may 
be  drawn  forth,  and  each  one  in  various  ways. 
The  powers  of  observation,  of  reflection,  of  in- 
tuition, of  imagination,  are  all  educable.  One 
of  the  most  important  and  most  difiicult  lessons 
to  learn  is  that  of  attention.  We  know  only 
what  we  are  conscious  of,  and  we  are  conscious 
only  of  that  to  which  we  give  heed.  If  we  but 
hold  the  mind  to  any  subject  with  perseverance, 
it  will  deliver  its  secret.  The  little  knowledge 
we  have  is  often  vague  and  unreal,  because  we 
are  heedless,  because  we  have  never  taught  our- 
selves to   dwell   in  conscious  communion  with 


1 64    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

the  objects  of  thought.  The  trained  eye  sees 
innumerable  beauties  which  are  hidden  from 
others,  and  so  the  mind  which  is  taught  to  look 
right  sees  truths  the  uneducated  can  never  know. 
We  may  be  taught  to  judge  as  well  as  to  look. 
Indeed,  once  we  have  learned  to  see  things  as 
they  are,  correct  opinions  and  judgments  natu- 
rally follow.  All  faculty  is  the  result  of  educa- 
tion. Poets,  orators,  philosophers,  and  saints 
bring  not  their  gifts  into  the  world  with  them; 
but  by  looking  and  thinking,  doing  and  striving, 
they  rise  from  the  poor  elements  of  half-con- 
scious life  to  the  clear  vision  of  truth  and  beauty. 
Natural  endowments  are  not  equal ;  but  the 
chief  cause  of  inequality  lies  in  the  unequal  ef- 
forts which  men  make  to  develop  their  endow- 
ments. The  lack  of  imagination  in  the  multi- 
tude makes  their  life  dull,  uninteresting,  and 
material,  and  it  is  assumed  that  we  are  born 
with,  or  without,  imagination,  and  that  there  is 
no  remedy  for  this  misery.  And  those  who 
admit  that  imagination  is  subject  to  the  law  of 
development,  frequently  hold  that  it  should  be 
repressed  rather  than  strengthened.  Doubtless 
the  imagination  can  be  cultivated,  just  as  the 
eye  or  the  ear,  the  judgment  or  the  reason,  can 
be  cultivated ;  and  since  imagination,  like  faith, 
hope,  and  love,  helps  us  to  live  in  higher  and 
fairer  worlds,  an  educator  is  false  to  his  calling 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 65 

when  he  leaves  it  unimproved.  The  classics, 
and  especially  poetry,  are  the  great  means  of 
intellectual  culture,  because  more  than  anything 
else  they  have  power  to  exalt  and  ennoble  the 
imagination.  To  suppose  that  this  faculty  is 
one  which  only  poets  and  artists  need,  is  to  take 
a  shallow  and  partial  view.  The  historian,  the 
student  of  Nature,  the  statesman,  the  minister  of 
religion,  the  teacher,  the  mechanic  even,  if  they 
are  to  do  good  work,  must  possess  imagination, 
which  is  at  once  an  intellectual,  a  moral,  and  a 
religious  faculty.  It  is  the  mother  and  mis- 
tress of  faith,  hope,  and  love.  It  is  the  source 
of  great  thoughts,  of  high  aspirations,  and  of 
heavenly  dreams.  Without  it  the  illimitable 
starlit  expanse  loses  its  sublimity,  oceans  and 
mountains  their  awfulness  and  majesty,  flowers 
their  beauty,  home  its  sacred  charm,  youth  its 
halo,  and  the  grave  its  solemn  mystery. 

Those  powers  within  us  which  are  directly 
related  to  conduct,  the  impulses  to  self-preser- 
vation, and  to  the  propagation  of  the  race,  are 
subject  to  the  law  of  education,  not  less  than 
our  physical  and  intellectual  endowments.  And 
the  importance  of  dealing  rightly  with  these 
powers  is  readily  perceived  if  we  reflect  that 
conduct  is  the  greater  part  of  human  life,  which 
is  a  life  of  thought  and  love,  of  hope  and  faith, 
of  ima<2:ination  and  desire. 


1 66    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

As  we  can  educate  the  faculties  of  thought  and 
imagination,  so  can  we  develop  the  power  to 
love,  to  hope,  to  believe,  and  to  desire.  When 
there  is  question  of  the  intellect,  teachers  seek 
to  impart  information  rather  than  to  strengthen 
the  mind,  and  when  there  is  question  of  the 
moral  nature,  they  have  recourse  to  precepts 
and  maxims  instead  of  striving  to  confirm 
the  will  and  to  direct  impulse.  It  is  gen- 
erally held,  in  fact,  that  will  is  a  gift,  not  a 
growth,  and  the  same  view  is  taken  of  all  our 
moral  dispositions.  We  are  supposed  to  receive 
from  Nature  a  warm  or  a  cold  heart,  a  hopeful 
or  a  despondent  temper,  a  believing  or  a  scepti- 
cal turn  of  mind,  a  spiritual  or  a  sensual  bent. 
Now  as  I  have  already  admitted,  endowments 
are  unlike ;  but  what  has  this  to  do  with  the 
drift  of  the  argument  ?  Minds,  though  by 
nature  unequal,  may  all  be  educated;  and  so 
wills  may  be  educated,  and  so  that  which  makes 
us  capable  of  faith,  hope,  and  desire,  may  be 
drawn  forth,  strengthened,  and  refined.  Emer- 
son, whose  thought  is  predominantly  spiritual, 
takes  a  low  and  material  view  of  the  moral 
faculties,  confusing  strength  of  will  with  health. 
"  Courage,"  he  says,  "  is  the  degree  of  circula- 
tion of  the  blood  in  the  arteries.  .  .  .  When 
one  has  a  plus  of  health,  all  difficulties  vanish 
before  it."     But  will  is  a   moral  rather  than    a 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  167 

constitutional  power;  and  in  so  far  as  it  is 
moral,  it  may  be  cultivated  and  directed  to 
noble  aims  and  ends.  And  if  the  teacher  per- 
form this  work  with  fine  knowledge  and  tact, 
he  becomes  an  educator;  for  upon  the  will, 
more  than  upon  the  intellectual  faculties,  success 
or  failure  depends.  Whatever  we  are  able  to 
will,  we  are  able  to  learn  to  do ;  and  the  best 
service  we  can  render  another  is  to  rouse  and 
confirm  within  him  the  will  to  live  and  to  work, 
that  he  may  make  himself  a  complete  man,  that 
thus  he  may  become  a  benefactor  of  men  and  a 
co-worker  with  God.  The  rational  will,  which 
is  the  educated  will,  should  give  impulse  and 
guidance  to  all  our  thinking,  loving,  and  doing. 
It  should  control  appetite ;  it  should  nourish 
faith  and  hope ;  it  should  lead  us  on  through  the 
illusory  world  of  sensual  delights,  through  the 
hardly  less  illusory  world  of  wealth  and  power, 
still  bidding  us  look  and  see  that  the  world  to 
which  the  conscious  self  really  belongs,  is  infi- 
nite and  eternal,  and  that  to  seek  to  rest  in 
aught  else  is  to  apostatize  from  reason  and  con- 
science. Thus  it  would  awaken  in  us  a  divine 
discontent,  a  sacred  unrest,  which  might  urge 
us  on  through  the  darkness  of  appetite  and  the 
unwholesome  air  of  avarice  and  ambition,  whis- 
pering to  us  that  our  life-work  is  to  know  truth, 
to  love  beauty,  to  do  righteousness.     To  none 


1 68     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

is  the  education  of  the  will  so  necessary  as  to 
the  lovers  of  intellectual  excellence,  for  they 
who  live  in  the  world  of  ideas  are  easily  content 
to  let  the  world  of  deeds  take  care  of  itself.  As 
the  astronomer  sees  the  earth  lost  like  a  grain 
of  sand  in  infinite  space,  so  to  the  wide  and 
deep  view  of  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  course 
of  human  thought  and  action,  what  any  man, 
what  the  whole  race  of  man,  may  do,  can  seem 
but  insignificant.  From  the  vanity  and  noise  of 
actors  who  fret  and  storm  for  their  brief  hour, 
and  then  pass  forever  from  life's  stage,  he  flies 
to  ideal  worlds  where  truth  never  changes,  where 
beauty  never  grows  old,  and  lives  more  richly 
blest  than  lovers  in  Tempe  or  the  dales  of 
Arcady.  And  then  the  habit  of  looking  at 
things  from  many  sides  leads  to  doubt,  hesita- 
tion, and  inaction.  While  the  wise  deliberate, 
the  young  and  inexperienced  have  won  or  lost 
the  battle.  Thus  the  purely  intellectual  life 
tends  to  weaken  faith,  hope,  and  desire,  which 
are  the  sources  whence  conduct  springs,  the 
drying  up  of  which  leaves  us  amid  barren  wastes, 
where  high  thinking,  if  it  be  not  impossible, 
brings  neither  strength  nor  joy ;  for  the  secret  of 
strength  and  joy  lies  in  doing  and  not  in  think- 
ing. It  is  a  law  of  our  nature  that  conduct 
brings  the  most  certain  and  the  most  perma- 
nent satisfaction,  and  hence  whatever  our  ideals, 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE.  1 69 

the  pursuit  should  be  inspired  by  the  sense  of 
duty. 

"  Stern  law-giver  !  yet  thou  dost  wear 
The  Godhead's  most  benignant  grace ; 
Nor  know  we  anything  so  fair 
As  is  the  smile  upon  thy  face. 
Flowers  laugh  before  thee  on  their  beds 
And  fragrance  in  thy  footing  treads." 

Then  only  do  we  move  with  certain  step  when 
we  hear  God's  voice  bidding  us  go  forward,  as 
he  commands  the  starry  host  to  fly  onward, 
and  all  living  things  to  spring  upward  to  light 
and  warmth.  When  we  understand  that  he 
has  made  progress  the  law  of  life,  we  learn  to 
feel  that  not  to  grow  is  not  to  live.  Then  our 
view  is  enlarged ;  we  become  lovers  of  perfec- 
tion ;  we  cherish  every  gift,  and  in  many  ways 
we  strive  to  cultivate  the  many  powers  \thich 
go  to  the  making  of  a  man.  They  all  are  from 
him,  and  from  him  is  the  effort  by  which  they 
are  improved.  We  were  born  to  make  our- 
selves alive  in  him  and  in  his  universe,  and 
like  the  setter  in  the  field,  we  stretch  eye  and 
ear  and  nose  to  catch  whatever  message  may 
be  borne  to  us  from  his  boundless  game  park. 
We  observe,  reflect,  compare ;  we  read  best 
books ;  we  listen  to  whoever  speaks  what  he 
knows  and  feels  to  be  truth.  We  take  delight 
in  whatever  in  Nature  is  sublirne  or  beautiful, 
and  fresh  thoughts  and  innocent  hearts   make 


I/O    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

US  glad.  Wherever  an  atom  thrills,  there  too 
is  God,  and  in  him  we  feel  the  thrill  and  are  at 
home.  Our  faith  grows  pure ;  our  hope  is  con- 
firmed ;  and  our  love  and  sympathy  identify  us 
with  an  ever-widening  sphere  of  life  beyond  us. 
The  exclusive  self  passes  into  the  larger  move- 
ment of  the  social  and  religious  world  around 
us,  which,  as  we  now  realize,  is  also  within  us, 
giving  aims  and  motives  to  our  love  and  self- 
devotion.  We  understand  that  what  hurts 
another  can  never  help  us,  and  that  our  private 
good  must  tend  to  become  a  general  blessing. 
Thus  we  find  and  love  ourselves  in  the  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  religious  life  of  the  race, 
which  is  a  type  and  symbol  of  the  infinite  life 
of  God,  the  omen  and  promise  of  the  soul's 
survival.  As  we  become  conscious  of  ourselves 
only  through  communion  with  what  is  not  our- 
selves, so  we  truly  live  only  when  we  live  for 
God  and  the  world  he  creates,  —  losing  life  that 
we  may  find  it;  dying,  like  seed-corn,  that  we 
may  rise  to  a  new  and  richer  life.  Not  what 
gratifies  our  selfish  or  sensual  nature  will  help 
us  to  lead  this  right  human  life;  but  that  which 
illumines  and  deepens  thought  and  love,  which 
gives  to  faith  a  boundless  scope,  to  hope  an  ever- 
lasting foundation,  to  desire  the  infinite  beauty 
which,  though  unseen,  is  felt,  like  memory  of 
music  fled.     The  unseen  world  ceases  to  be  a 


RIGHT  HUMAN  LIFE. 


171 


future  world ;  and  is  recognized  as  the  very 
world  in  which  we  now  think  and  love,  and  so 
intellectual  and  moral  life  passes  into  the  sphere 
of  religion.  We  no  longer  pursue  ideals  which 
forever  elude  us,  but  we  become  partakers  of  the 
divine  life ;  for  in  giving  ourselves  to  the  Eternal 
and  Infinite  we  find  God  in  our  souls.  The  ideal 
is  made  real ;  God  is  with  us,  and  through  faith, 
hope,  and  love  we  are  one  with  him,  and  all  is 
well.  Henceforth  in  seeking  to  know  more,  to 
become  more,  we  are  animated  by  a  divine 
spirit.  Now  we  may  grow  old,  still  learning  many 
things,  still  smitten  with  the  love  of  beauty,  still 
finding  delight  in  fresh  thoughts  and  innocent 
pleasures,  and  it  may  be  that  we  shall  be  found 
to  be  teachers  of  wisdom  and  of  holiness.  Then, 
indeed,  shall  we  be  happy,  for  it  is  better  to 
teach  truth  than  to  win  battles.  A  war-hero 
supposes  a  barbarous  condition  of  the  race,  and 
when  all  shall  be  civilized,  they  who  know  and 
love  the  most  shall  be  held  to  be  the  greatest 
and  the  best. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION. 

AS  they  who  look  on  the  ocean  think  of  its 
vastness ;  of  the  many  shores  in  many 
cHmes  visited  by  its  waves  to  ply  "  their  priest- 
like task  of  clean  ablution;"  of  cities  and  em- 
pires that  rose  beside  its  waters,  flourished, 
decayed,  and  became  a  memory;  of  others  that 
shall  rise  and  also  pass  away,  while  the  mov- 
ing element  remains,  —  so  we  to-day  beholding 
ancient  Faith,  laying,  in  the  New  World,  the 
cornerstone  of  an  institution  which  better  than 
anything  else  symbolizes  the  aim  and  tendency 
of  modern  life,  find  ourselves  dwelling  in 
thought  upon  what  has  been  and  what  will  be. 

On  the  one  hand  rises  the  venerable  form  of 
that  religion  whose  voice  re-echoed  in  the 
hearts  of  Abraham,  Moses,  David,  and  Isaiah ; 
whose  lips,  when  the  Saviour  spoke,  uttered 
diviner  truth  and  thrilled  the  hearts  of  men  with 
purer  love,  living  with  them  in  deserts  and  cata- 
combs, leading  them  along  bloodstained  ways 
to  victory  and  peace,  until  at  length  the  Church 
gleamed   forth    from    amid    the    parting  storm- 


UNIl  'ERSITY  ED UCA  TION.  I  73 

clouds  and  shone  like  a  mountain-built  city 
bathed  in  sunlight.  On  the  other  stands  the  Gen- 
ius of  the  Republic,  the  embodied  spirit  of  the 
sovereign  people,  who,  accepting  as  literal  truth 
the  Christian  principles  that  God  is  a  Father, 
and  men  brothers  and  therefore  equal,  strive  to 
take  from  political  society  the  blindness  and 
fatality  of  natural  law,  and  to  endow  it  with  the 
divine  and  human  attributes  of  justice,  mercy, 
and  intelligence.  From  the  very  beginning  our 
American  history  is  full  of  religious  zeal,  of 
high  courage  and  strong  endeavor.  When 
Columbus,  saddened  by  the  frivolousness  or  the 
perfidy  of  courts,  but  unshaken  in  his  purpose, 
walked  the  streets  of  the  Spanish  capital,  lonely 
and  forsaken,  the  children,  as  he  passed  along, 
would  point  to  their  foreheads  and  smile,  for 
was  not  his  mind  unhinged,  and  did  he  not  be- 
lieve the  world  was  round  and  on  the  other  side 
men  walked  like  flies  upon  a  ceiling?  But  a 
woman's  heart  understood  that  his  folly  was  of 
the  kind  which  is  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  with 
her  help  he  set  sail,  not  timidly  or  doubting 
like  the  Portuguese  who  for  fifty  years  hugged 
the  African  coast,  advancing  and  then  receding, 
but  facing  the  awful  and  untravelled  ocean  with 
a  heart  stronger  than  its  storm-swept  billows, 
he  steered  due  west.  In  his  journal,  day  after 
day,  he  wrote  these  simple  but  sublime  words. 


174    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

"  That  day  he  sailed  westward,  which  was  his 
course."  And  still,  as  hope  rose  and  fell,  as  mis- 
givings and  terrors  seized  on  his  men,  as  the 
compass  varied  in  inexplicable  ways  as  though 
they  were  entering  regions  where  the  very  laws 
of  Nature  change,  the  soul  of  the  great  admiral 
stood  firm  and  each  evening  he  wrote  again  the 
self-same  words,  "  that  day  he  sailed  westward 
which  was  his  course,"  until  at  length  seeing 
what  he  foresaw,  he  gave  to  Christendom  an- 
other world  and  enlarged  the  boundaries  and 
scope  of  earthly  life.  What  hearts  had  not 
the  men  who  in  New  England,  in  Virginia,  in 
Maryland,  and  elsewhere,  settled  in  little  bands 
on  the  edge  of  vast  and  unexplored  regions, 
covered  by  interminable  forests,  where  savages 
lay  in  wait,  athirst  for  blood.  We  hear  without 
surprise  that  wise  and  prudent  men  looked 
upon  the  early  attempts  to  take  possession  of 
America  as  not  less  wild  and  visionary  than  the 
legendary  exploits  of  Amadis  de  Gaul;  but 
what  Utopian  dreamer,  what  poet  soaring  in  the 
high  regions  of  his  fancy,  could  have  imagined 
two  centuries  and  a  half  ago  the  beauty,  the 
power,  the  free  and  majestic  sweep  of  the 
stream  of  human  life  which  has  poured  across 
this  continent?  Who  could  have  dared  to  hope 
that  the  religious  exiles  who  sought  here  a 
home  for  the  Christian  conscience  were  a  seed, 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION  1 75 

the  least  of  all,  which  was  destined  to  grow  into 
a  tree  whose  boughs  should  shelter  the  land, 
and  bring  refreshment  to  the  weary  and  heavy- 
laden  from  every  part  of  the  earth? 

Who  could  have  thought  that  these  fugitives 
from  the  tyrant's  power  would,  in  little  more 
than  a  century,  grow  like  the  tribes  of  Israel 
into  a  people  able  to  withstand  the  onslaughts 
of  the  oppressor,  and  to  abolish  forever  within 
their  borders  despotic  rule?  Who  could  have 
had  faith  that  men  of  different  creeds,  speaking 
various  tongues,  bred  in  unlike  social  condi- 
tions, would  here  coalesce  and  co-operate  for 
the  general  purposes  of  free  government? 
Above  all,  who  could  have  believed  that  a  form 
of  government  rarely  tried,  even  in  small  States, 
and  when  tried  found  practicable  only  for  brief 
periods,  would  here  become  so  stable,  so 
strong,  that  every  hamlet,  every  village,  is  self- 
poised  and  manages  its  own  affairs?  The 
achievement  is  greater  than  we  are  able  to 
know;  nor  does  it  lie  chiefly  in  the  millions 
who  coming  from  many  lands  have  here  made 
homes  and  found  themselves  free  ;  nor  in  the 
building  of  cities,  the  clearing  of  forests,  the 
draining  of  swamps,  the  binding  of  two  oceans, 
and  the  opening  of  lines  of  rapid  communica- 
tion in  every  direction.  Not  to  numbers  or 
wealth  do  we  owe  our  significance    among  the 


1/6    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

nations ;  but  to  the  fact  that  we  have  shown 
that  respect  for  law  is  compatible  with  civil  and 
religious  liberty ;  that  a  free  people  can  become 
prosperous  and  strong,  and  preserve  order  with- 
out king  or  standing  army;  that  the  State  and 
the  Church  can  move  in  separate  orbits  and  still 
co-operate  for  the  common  welfare;  that  men 
of  different  races  and  beliefs  may  live  together 
in  peace ;  that  in  spite  of  an  abnormally  rapid 
increase  of  population  and  of  wealth,  and  of  the 
many  evils  thence  resulting,  the  prevailing  ten- 
dency is  to  sanity  of  thought  and  sentiment,  thus 
plainly  manifesting  the  vigor  of  our  life  and  in- 
stitutions ;  that  the  government  of  the  majority, 
where  men  put  their  trust  in  God  and  in  knowl- 
edge, is  in  the  end  the  government  of  the  good 
and  the  wise  We  have  thus  helped  to  establish 
confidence  in  human  nature;  to  prove  that 
man's  instincts,  like  the  laws  of  Nature,  are  con- 
servative ;  to  show  that  the  enthusiasts  who 
would  overturn  everything,  destroy  everything, 
have  no  abiding  place  or  influence  in  the  affairs 
of  a  free  people,  as  volcanic  and  cyclonic  forces 
are  but  transitory  and  superficial  in  their  action 
upon  the  earth.  We  have  shown  in  a  word  that 
under  a  popular  government,  where  men  are 
faithful  and  intelligent,  it  is  as  impossible  that 
society  should  become  chaotic  as  that  the 
planets  should  dissolve  into  star  dust. 


UNIVERSITY  education:  1 77 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  what  an  advance  this 
is  on  all  previous  views  of  political  life ;  how 
full  it  is  of  promise,  how  accordant  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  noblest  minds  in  every  part 
of  the  world.  It  gives  us  the  leading  place 
among  the  nations  which  are  moving  along 
rising  ways  to  higher  and  freer  life.  To  turn  to 
the  Catholic  Church  in  America;  all  observers 
remark  its  great  development  here,  the  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  of  its  adherents,  its 
growth  in  wealth  and  influence,  the  firm  yet 
gentle  hand  with  which  it  brings  heterogeneous 
populations  under  the  control  of  a  common 
faith  and  discipline,  the  ease  with  which  it 
adapts  itself  to  new  conditions  and  organizes  it- 
self in  every  part  of  the  country.  It  is  not  a 
little  thing,  in  spite  of  unfriendly  public  opinion 
and  of  great  and  numerous  obstacles,  in  spite  of 
the  burden  which  high  achievements  impose 
and  of  the  lack  of  easy  and  supple  movement 
which  gathering  years  imply,  to  enter  new 
fields,  to  bend  one's  self  to  unaccustomed 
work,  and  to  struggle  for  the  right  to  live  in  the 
midst  of  a  generation  heedless  of  the  good,  and 
mindful  only  of  the  evil  which  has  been  asso- 
ciated with  one's  life.  This  is  what  the  Catholic 
Church  in  America  has  had  to  do,  and  has  done 
with  a  success  which  recalls  the  memory  of  the 
spread  of  Christianity  through  the  Roman  Em- 


178    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

pire.  It  counts  its  members  here  by  millions, 
while  a  hundred  years  ago  it  counted  them  by 
thousands;  and  its  priests,  churches,  schools, 
and  institutions  of  charity  it  reckons  by  the 
thousand,  while  then  they  could  be  counted 
hardly  by  tens.  Public  opinion  which  was  then 
hostile  is  no  longer  so  in  the  same  degree. 
Prejudice  has  not  indeed  ceased  to  exist;  for 
where  there  is  question  of  religion,  of  society,  of 
politics,  even  the  fairest  minds  fail  to  see  things 
as  they  are,  and  the  multitude,  it  may  be  sup- 
posed, will  never  become  impartial ;  but  the 
tendency  of  our  life  and  of  the  age  is  opposed 
to  bigotry,  and  as  we  lose  faith  in  the  justice 
and  efificacy  of  persecution,  we  perceive  more 
clearly  that  true  religion  can  neither  be  de- 
fended nor  propagated  by  violence  and  intoler- 
ance, by  appeals  to  sectarian  bitterness  and 
national  hatred.  By  none  is  this  more  sincerely 
acknowledged,  or  more  deeply  felt,  than  by  the 
Catholics  of  the  United  States. 

The  special  significance  of  our  American 
Catholic  history  is  not  found  in  the  phases  of 
our  life  which  attract  attention,  and  are  a  com- 
mon theme  for  declamation ;  but  it  lies  in  the 
fact  that  our  example  proves  that  the  Church 
can  thrive  where  it  is  neither  protected  nor  per- 
secuted, but  is  simply  left  to  itself  to  manage 
its  own  affairs  and  to  do  its  work.     Such  an  ex- 


UNIVERSITY  ED  UCA  TIOiY.  1 79 

periment  had  never  been  made  when  we  became 
an  independent  people,  and  its  success  is  of 
world-wide  import,  because  this  is  the  modern 
tendency  and  the  position  toward  the  Church 
which  all  the  nations  will  sooner  or  later  as- 
sume; just  as  they  all  will  be  forced  finally  to 
accept  popular  rule.  The  great  underlying  prin- 
ciple of  democracy,  —  that  men  are  brothers  and 
have  equal  rights,  and  that  God  clothes  the  soul 
with  freedom,  —  is  a  truth  taught  by  Christ,  is  a 
truth  proclaimed  by  the  Church;  and  the  faith 
of  Christians  in  this  principle,  in  spite  of  hesita- 
tions and  misgivings,  of  oppositions  and  obsta- 
cles and  inconceivable  difficulties,  has  finally 
given  to  it  its  modern  vigor  and  beneficent 
power.  The  spirit  of  love  and  mercy,  which  is 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  breathes  like  a  heavenly 
zephyr  through  the  whole  earth,  and  under  its 
influence  the  age  is  moved  to  attempt  greater 
things  than  hitherto  have  seemed  possible. 
Never  before  has  sympathy  among  men  been  so 
widepread  ;  never  has  the  desire  to  come  to  the 
relief  of  all  who  sufifer  pain  or  wrong  been  so 
general  or  so  intelligent.  To  feed  the  hungry,  to 
clothe  the  naked,  to  visit  the  sick,  seems  now 
comparatively  a  little  thing.  Our  purpose  is  to 
create  a  social  condition  in  which  none  shall  lack 
food  or  clothing  or  shelter;  following  the  divine 
command:   "  O  Israel,  thou  shalt  not  suffer  that 


l8o    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

there  be  a  beggar  or  a  pauper  within  thy  bor- 
ders." Kindness  to  slaves  ceased  to  be  a  virtue 
for  us  when  we  abohshed  slavery;  and  we  look 
forward  to  the  day  when  nor  man  nor  woman 
nor  child  shall  work  and  still  be  condemned  to 
a  life  of  misery.  That  great  blot  upon  the 
page  of  history,  woman's  fate,  has  partly  been 
erased,  and  we  are  drawing  near  to  the  time 
when  in  the  world  as  in  Christ  there  shall  be 
made  no  distinction  between  slave  and  freeman, 
between  man  and  woman.  If  we  compare  mod- 
ern with  ancient  and  mediaeval  epochs,  wars 
have  become  less  frequent,  and  in  war  men 
have  become  more  humane  and  merciful. 

Increasing  knowledge  of  human  life  as  it  is 
found  in  the  savage,  in  the  barbarian,  and  in 
the  civilized  man,  fixes  us  more  unalterably  in 
our  belief  in  the  worth  of  progress.  The  sav- 
age and  the  barbarian  are  hopelessly  ignorant, 
and  therefore  weak  and  wretched,  since  igno- 
rance is  the  chief  source  of  man's  misery.  "  My 
people,"  says  the  prophet,  "  are  destroyed  for 
lack  of  knowledge."  From  ignorance  rather 
than  from  depravity  have  sprung  the  most  ap- 
palling crimes,  the  most  pernicious  vices  i  In 
darkness  of  mind  men  have  worshipped  sense- 
less material  things,  have  deified  every  cruel 
and  carnal  passion ;  at  the  dictate  of  unenlight- 
ened conscience  they  have  oppressed,  laid  waste, 


UNIVERSITY  ED  UCA  TION.  1 8 1 

and  murdered  ;  for  lack  of  knowledge  they  have 
perished  in  the  snows  of  winter,  been  wasted  by 
miasmatic  air,  have  fallen  victims  to  famine  and 
pestilence,  and  have  bowed  for  centuries  be- 
neath the  degrading  yoke  of  tyranny.  Science 
is  a  ministering  angel.  The  Jesuits  by  bring- 
ing quinine  to  the  knowledge  of  civilized  man 
have  done  more  to  relieve  suffering  than  all 
the  builders  of  hospitals.  Vaccine  has  wrought 
more  potently  than  the  all-forgetful  love  of 
mothers ;  more  than  all  the  patriots  gunpowder 
has  won  victories  over  tyrants  ;  and  the  print- 
ing-press is  a  greater  teacher  than  philosophers, 
writers,  poets,  schools,  and  universities.  Like 
a  heavenly  messenger  the  compass  guides  man 
whithersoever  he  will  go,  still  turning  to  the  one 
fixed  point,  as  turn  the  hearts  of  the  children  of 
men  to  God.  The  nations  intermingle  and  lose 
their  jealousies  and  hatreds,  borne  everywhere 
by  the  power  of  steam  ;  and  the  thoughts  of  men 
are  carried  by  lightning  round  the  whole  earth. 
Commerce  has  become  a  world-wide  interchange 
of  good  offices  ;  and  while  it  adds  to  the  comfort 
of  all,  it  enlarges  thought  and  strengthens  sym- 
pathy. Our  greater  knowledge  has  enabled  us 
to  lengthen  human  life;  to  extinguish  some  of 
the  most  virulent  diseases  ;  to  perform  surgical 
operations  without  pain ;  to  increase  the  fertility 
of  the  soil ;  to  make  pestilential  regions  habita- 


1 82     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

ble ;  to  illumine  our  cities  and  homes  at  night 
with  the  brilHancy  of  day ;  to  give  to  laborers  bet- 
ter clothing  and  dwellings  than  princes  in  other 
ages  have  had.  It  has  opened  to  our  vision  the 
limitless  sidereal  expanse,  and  revealed  to  us  a 
heavenly  glory  which  transcends  the  imagina- 
tion of  inspired  poets.  Before  this  new  light 
the  earth  has  dwindled  away  and  become  an 
atom,  as  the  stars  hide  when  the  great  sun 
wheels  upward  from  out  the  night.  We  have 
looked  into  the  very  heart  of  the  sun  itself,  and 
know  of  what  it  is  made ;  and  with  the  micro- 
scope we  have  caught  sight  of  the  marvellous 
world  of  the  infinitesimally  small,  have  seen 
what  human  eye  had  never  beheld,  and  have 
watched  unseen  life  building  up  and  breaking 
down  all  living  organisms.  We  have  learned 
how  to  walk  secure  in  the  depths  of  ocean,  to 
soar  in  mid-air,  to  rush  on  our  way  unimpeded 
through  the  stony  hearts  of  mountains.  We 
see  the  earth  grow  from  a  fire-ball  to  be  the 
home  of  man ;  we  know  its  anatomy ;  we  read 
its  history ;  and  we  behold  races  of  animals  which 
passed  away  ages  before  the  eye  of  man  looked 
forth  upon  the  boundless  mystery  and  saw  the 
shadow  of  the  presence  of  the  infinite  God. 
Better  than  the  Greeks  we  know  the  history 
of  Greece ;  than  the  Romans  that  of  Rome. 
Words  that  were  never  written  have  whispered 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 83 

to  US  the  dreams  and  hopes  of  people  that 
perished  and  left  no  record ;  and  the  more  we 
have  learned  of  the  past  the  more  clearly  do 
we  perceive  how  far  the  present  age  surpasses 
all  others  in  knowledge  and  in  power. 

The  mighty  movement  by  which  this  develop- 
ment has  been  caused,  has  not  slackened,  but 
seems  each  day  to  gain  new  force ;  and  the 
marvellous  changes,  political,  social,  moral,  in- 
tellectual, and  physical,  which  give  character  to 
the  nineteenth  century  are  but  the  prelude  to  a 
drama  which  shall  make  all  past  achievements  of 
our  race  appear  weak  and  contemptible.  To 
imagine  that  our  superiority  is  merely  mechani- 
cal and  material  is  to  fail  to  see  things  as  they 
are.  Greater  individuals  may  have  lived  than 
now  are  living,  but  never  before  has  the  world 
been  governed  with  so  much  wisdom  and  so  much 
justice;  and  the  power  back  of  our  progress 
is  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious.  Science  is 
not  material.  It  is  the  product  of  intellect  and 
will ;  and  the  great  founders  of  modern  science, 
Copernicus,  Kepler,  Bacon,  Descartes,  Galileo, 
Newton,  Leibnitz,  Ampere,  Liebig,  Fresnel, 
Faraday,  and  Mayer,  were  Christians.  "  How- 
ever paradoxical  it  may  sound,"  says  DuBois- 
Reymond,  "  modern  science  owes  its  origin  to 
Christianity." 

Since  the  course  of  events  is  left  chiefly  to 


184    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

the  direction  of  natural  causes,  and  since  science 
enables  man  to  bend  the  stars,  the  lightning,  the 
winds,  and  the  waves  to  his  purposes,  what  shall 
resist  the  onward  march  of  those  who  are  armed 
with  such  power?  Since  life  is  a  warfare,  a 
struggle,  how  shall  the  ignorant  and  the  thought- 
less survive  in  a  conflict  in  which  natural  knowl- 
edge has  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  wise  forces 
which  the  angels  may  not  wield?  Since  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Church  is  left  subject  to  human  in- 
fluence, shall  the  Son  of  Man  find  faith  on  earth 
when  he  comes  if  the  most  potent  instrument 
God  has  given  to  man  is  abandoned  to  those 
who  know  not  Christ  ?  Why  should  we  who 
reckon  it  a  part  of  the  glory  of  the  Church 
in  the  past  that  she  labored  to  civilize  barba- 
rians, to  emancipate  slaves,  to  elevate  woman, 
to  preserve  the  classical  writings,  to  foster 
music,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  poetry, 
and  eloquence,  think  it  no  part  of  her  mission 
now  to  encourage  scientific  research  ?  To  be 
catholic  is  to  be  drawn  not  only  to  the  love  of 
whatever  is  good  and  beautiful,  but  also  to  the 
love  of  whatever  is  true;  and  to  do  the  best 
work  the  Catholic  Church  must  fit  herself  to  a 
constantly  changing  environment,  to  the  char- 
acter of  every  people,  and  to  the  wants  of  each 
age.  Has  not  Christ  declared  that  who- 
ever is  not  against  us  is  for  us;  and  may  we 


UNIVERSITY  ED UCA  TION.  1 8  $ 

not  therefore  find  friends  in  all  who  work 
for  worthy  ends,  —  for  liberty  and  knowledge, 
for  increase  of  power  and  love?  This  large 
sympathy,  which  true  religion  and  the  best 
culture  promote,  is  Catholic,  and  it  is  also 
American ;  for  here  with  us,  I  think,  the  whole 
world  is  for  men  of  good-will  who  are  not  fools. 
We  who  are  the  children  of  ancient  Faith,  who 
inherit  the  boon  from  fathers  who  held  it  to  be 
above  all  price,  are  saved,  where  there  is  ques- 
tion of  former  times,  from  irreverent  thoughts 
and  shallow  views. 

For  us  the  long  past  ages  have  not  flown; 
Like  our  own  deeds  they  travel  with  us  still ; 
Reviling  them,  we  but  ourselves  disown  ; 
We  are  the  stream  their  many  currents  fill. 
From  their  rich  youth  our  manhood  has  upgrown, 
And  in  our  blood  their  hopes  and  loves  yet  thrill. 

But  if  like  the  old,  the  Church  can  look  to 
the  past,  like  the  young,  she  can  look  to  the 
future.  If  there  are  Catholics  who  linger  re- 
gretful amid  glories  that  have  vanished,  there 
are  also  Catholics  who  in  the  midst  of  their 
work  feel  a  confidence  which  leaves  no  place 
for  regret;  who  well  understand  that  the  earthly 
environment  in  which  the  Church  lives  is  sub- 
ject to  change  and  decay,  and  that  new  sur- 
roundings imply  new  tasks  and  impose  new 
duties.     The  splendor  of  the  mediaeval  Church, 


1 86    EDUCATIOX  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

its  worldly  power,  the  pomp  of  its  ceremonial, 
the  glittering  pageantry  in  which  its  pontiffs  and 
prelates  vied  with  kings  and  emperors  in  gor- 
geous display,  are  gone,  or  going;  and  were  it 
given  to  man  to  recall  the  past,  the  spirit 
whereby  it  lived  would  still  be  wanting.  But 
it  is  the  mark  of  youthful  and  barbarous  natures 
to  have  eyes  chiefly  for  the  garb  and  circum- 
stance of  religion,  to  see  the  body  only  and 
not  the  soul.  At  all  events  the  course  of  life 
is  onward,  and  enthusiasm  for  the  past  cannot 
become  the  source  of  great  and  far  reaching 
action.  The  present  alone  gives  opportunity; 
and  the  face  of  hope  turns  to  the  future,  and 
the  wise  are  busy  with  what  lies  at  hand,  with 
immediate  duty,  and  not  with  schemes  for 
bringing  back  the  things  that  have  passed 
away.  Leaving  their  dead  with  the  dead,  they 
work  for  life  and  for  the  living. 

As  in  each  individual  there  is  a  better  and  a 
worse  self,  so  in  each  age  there  are  conflicting 
tendencies;  but  it  is  the  part  of  enlightened 
minds  and  generous  hearts  to  see  what  is  true, 
and  to  love  what  is  good.  The  fault-finder  is 
hateful  both  in  life  and  in  literature ;  and  it  is 
lago,  the  most  despicable  of  characters,  whom 
Shakespeare  makes  say,  "I  am  nothing  if  not 
critical."  A  Christian  of  all  men  is  without 
excuse  for  being  fretful  and  sour,  for  thinking 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 8/ 

and  acting  as  though  this  were  a  devil's  world, 
and  not  the  eternal  God's,  as  though  there  were 
danger  lest  the  Almighty  should  not  prevail. 
We  know  that  God  is,  and  therefore  that  all  will 
be  well;  and  if  it  were  conceivable  that  God  is 
not,  it  would  still  be  the  part  of  a  true  man  to 
labor  to  make  knowledge  and  virtue  prevail. 
The  criticism  of  the  age  which  gives  a  better 
understanding  of  its  needs  is  good ;  all  other  is 
baneful. 

Opinion  rules  the  world,  and  a  right  appre- 
ciation of  the  influences  by  which  opinion  is 
moulded  is  the  surest  guide  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  time.  In  ignorant  and  barbarous  ages 
the  notions  and  beliefs  of  men  are  crude,  and 
are  controlled  by  a  few,  for  only  a  few  possess 
knowledge  and  influence ;  and  even  in  the  age 
of  Pericles  and  Augustus,  the  thought  of  man- 
kind means  the  thoughts  of  some  dozens  of 
men.  A  few  vigorous  minds  founded  schools 
of  opinion  and  style,  became  intellectual  dicta- 
tors, and  asserted  their  authority  for  centuries. 
As  the  art  of  printing  was  yet  unknown,  and 
books  were  rare,  the  teacher  was  the  speaker ; 
orators  held  sway  over  the  destiny  of  nations ; 
and  the  Christian  pulpit  became  the  world's 
university.  But  the  printing-press  in  giving  to 
thought  a  permanent  form  which  is  placed  un- 
der the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  has  made  the 


1 88     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

passion,  the  splendor,  the  majestic  phrase  of 
oratory  seem  unreal  as  an  actor's  speech,  evan- 
escent as  a  singer's  tones ;  and  hence  the  pulpit 
and  the  rostrum,  though  they  still  have  influ- 
ence, can  never  again  exercise  the  control  over 
opinion  which  belonged  to  them  when  all  men 
had  not  become  readers. 

What  is  true  of  eloquence  may  be  affirmed 
of  all  art-  In  spite  of  ourselves,  even  the  best 
of  us  find  it  difficult  to  make  art  a  serious  busi- 
ness ;  and  unless  taken  seriously,  it  is  vain,  loses 
its  soul,  and  falls  into  the  hands  of  pretenders 
and  sentimentalists.  Once  painting,  sculpture, 
architecture,  and  song  were  the  expression  of 
thoughts  and  moods  which  irresistibly  appealed 
for  utterance ;  but  with  us  they  are  a  fashion, 
like  cosmetics  and  laces.  Poetry,  the  highest  of 
arts,  has  lost  its  original  character  of  song,  and 
the  poet  now  deals,  in  an  imaginative  way,  with 
problems  which  puzzle  metaphysicians  and  theo- 
logians. The  causes  that  have  robbed  art  of  so 
much  of  its  charm  and  power  have  necessarily 
diminished  the  influence  of  ceremonial  worship, 
which  is  the  artistic  expression  of  the  soul's 
faith  and  love,  of  its  hopes  and  yearnings. 
VVe  are,  indeed,  still  subdued  b}'  the  majesty 
of  dimly  lighted  cathedrals,  by  solemn  music, 
and  the  various  symbolism  of  the  ritual,  but 
we    feel     not    the    deep    awe    of    our    fathers 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 89 

whose  knees  furrowed  the  pavement  stones, 
and  whose  burning  lips  kissed  them  smooth ; 
and  to  blame  ourselves  for  this  would  serve  no 
purpose.  To  those  who  find  no  pleasure  in 
sweet  sounds,  we  pipe  in  vain,  and  argument  to 
show  that  one  ought  to  be  moved  by  what 
leaves  him  cold,  is  meaningless.  Emotion  is 
spontaneous,  and  adorers,  like  lovers,  neither 
ask  nor  care  for  reasons.  There  is  in  fact  an 
element  of  illusion  in  feeling;  passion  is  non- 
rational  ;  and  when  the  spirit  of  the  time  is 
intellectual,  men  are  seldom  devout,  however 
religious  they  may  be.  The  scientific  habit  of 
mind  is  not  favorable  to  childlike  and  unreason- 
ing faith ;  and  the  new  views  of  the  physical 
universe  which  the  modern  mind  is  forced  to 
take,  bring  us  face  to  face  with  new  problems 
in  religion  and  morals,  in  politics  and  society. 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  past,  whatever 
we  may  fear  or  hope  for  the  future,  if  we  would 
make  an  impression  on  the  world  around  us, 
we  must  understand  the  thoughts,  the  pur- 
poses, and  the  methods  of  those  with  whom 
we  live ;  and  we  must  at  the  same  time  recog- 
nize that  though  the  truth  of  religion  be  un- 
changeable, the  mind  of  man  is  not  so,  and 
that  the  point  of  view  varies  not  only  from 
people  to  people,  and  from  age  to  age,  but 
from  year  to  year  in  the  growing  thought  of 


190    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

the  individual  and  of  the  world.  As  in  travel- 
ling round  the  earth,  time  changes,  and  when  it 
is  morning  here,  it  is  evening  there,  so  with 
difference  of  latitude  and  longitude,  of  civiliza- 
tion and  barbarism,  the  opinions  and  manners 
of  men  grow  different.  They  who  observe 
from  positions  widely  separate  do  not  see  the 
same  things,  or  do  not  see  them  in  the  same 
light.  Proof  for  a  peasant  is  not  proof  for  a 
philosopher;  and  arguments  which  in  one  age 
are  held  to  be  unanswerable,  in  another  lose 
power  to  convince,  or  become  altogether  mean- 
ingless. It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  the 
hearts  of  Christians  should  again  burn  with  the 
devotional  enthusiasm  and  the  warlike  ardor  of 
the  Crusaders;  and  just  as  little  is  it  conceivable 
that  men  should  again  become  passionately  in- 
terested in  the  questions  which  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  filled  the  world  with  the 
noise  of  theological  disputation.  It  were  mere 
loss  of  time  to  beat  now  the  waste  fields  of 
the  Protestant  controversy:  Wiseman's  book 
on  science  and  revealed  religion,  which  fift}' 
years  ago  attracted  attention,  lies  like  a 
stranded  ship  on  a  deserted  shore,  and  at- 
tempts of  the  kind  are  held  in  slight  esteem. 
The  immature  mind  is  eager  to  reduce  faith 
to  knowledge ;  but  the  accomplished  thinker 
understands  that  knowledge  begins  and  ends  in 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  I91 

faith.  There  is  oppugnancy  between  belief  in 
an  all-wise,  all-good,  and  all-powerful  God,  and 
belief  in  the  divine  origin  of  Nature,  whose  face 
is  smeared  with  filth  and  blood  ;  but  we  hold  that 
the  conflicting  faiths  and  increasing  knowledge 
cannot  add  to  the  difficulty.  On  the  contrary, 
the  higher  the  intelligence,  the  purer  Nature 
seems  to  grow.  The  chemical  elements  are  as 
fair  and  sweet  in  the  corpse  as  in  the  living  body, 
and  the  earthquake  and  the  cyclone  obey  the 
same  laws  which  make  the  waters  flow  and  the 
zephyrs  breathe  perfume.  It  is  the  imagina- 
tion and  not  the  reason  that  is  overwhelmed  by 
the  idea  of  unending  space  and  time.  To  the 
intellect,  eternity  is  not  more  mysterious  than 
the  present  moment,  and  the  distance  which 
separates  us  from  the  remotest  stars  is  not 
more  incomprehensible  than  a  hand's  breadth. 
Science  is  the  widening  thought  of  man,  work- 
ing on  the  hypothesis  of  universal  intelligibility 
toward  universal  intelligence;  and  religion  is 
the  soul,  escaping  from  the  labyrinth  of  matter 
to  the  light  and  love  of  the  Infinite;  and  on  the 
heights  they  meet  and  are  at  peace. 

Meanwhile  they  who  seek  natural  knowledge 
must  admit  that  faith,  hope,  and  love  are  the 
everlasting  foundations  of  human  life,  and  that  a 
philosophic  creed  is  as  sterile  as  Platonic  love ; 
and  they  who  uphold  religion  must  confess  that 


192     EDUCATION  AND    THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 

faith  which  ignorance  alone  can  keep  alive  is 
little  better  than  superstition.  To  strive  to 
attain  truth  under  whatever  form  is  to  seek 
to  know  God ;  and  yet  no  ideal  can  be  true  for 
man,  unless  it  can  be  made  to  minister  to  faith, 
hope,  and  love  ;  for  by  them  we  live.  Let  us 
then  teach  ourselves  to  see  things  as  they  are, 
without  preoccupation  or  misgivings  lest  what 
is  should  ever  make  it  impossible,  for  us  to  be- 
lieve and  hope  in  the  better  yet  to  be.  Science 
and  morality  need  religion  as  much  as  thought 
and  action  require  emotion ;  and  beyond  the 
utmost  reach  of  the  human  mind  lie  the  bound- 
less worlds  of  mystery  where  the  soul  must 
believe  and  adore  what  it  can  but  dimly  discern. 
The  Copernican  theory  of  the  heavens  startled 
believers  at  first;  but  we  have  long  since  grown 
accustomed  to  the  new  view  which  reveals  to 
us  a  universe  infinitely  more  glorious  than 
aught  the  ancients  ever  imagined.  We  do  not 
rightly  see  either  the  things  which  are  always 
around  us,  or  those  which  for  the  first  time  are 
presented  to  our  eyes;  and  Avhen  novel  theories 
of  the  visible  world,  which  in  some  sense  is 
part  of  our  very  being,  profoundly  alter  our 
traditional  notions,  the  mind  is  disturbed  and 
overclouded,  and  the  lapse  of  time  alone  can 
make  plain  the  real  bearing  of  the  new  learning 
upon  life,  upon  religion,  and  upon  society.  There 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 93 

can  be  no  doubt  but  increase  of  knowledge 
involves  incidental  evils,  just  as  the  progress  of 
civilization  multiplies  our  wants;  but  the  wise 
are  not  therefore  driven  to  seek  help  from  igno- 
rance and  barbarism.  Whatever  the  loss,  all 
knowledge  is  gain.  The  evils  that  spring  from 
enlightenment  of  mind  will  find  their  remedy  in 
greater  enlightenment.  Such  at  least  is  the 
faith  of  an  age  whose  striking  characteristic  is 
confidence  in  education.  Men  have  ceased  to 
care  for  the  bliss  there  may  be  in  ignorance, 
and  those  who  dread  knowledge,  if  such  there 
still  be,  are  as  far  away  from  the  life  of  this 
century  as  the  dead  whose  bones  crumbled  to 
dust  a  thousand  years  ago. 

The  aim  the  best  now  propose  to  themselves 
is  to  provide  not  wealth  or  pleasure,  or  better  ma- 
chinery or  more  leisure,  but  a  higher  and  more 
effective  kind  of  education;  and  hence  whatever 
one's  preoccupation,  whether  social,  political, 
religious,  or  industrial,  the  question  of  educa- 
tion forces  itself  upon  his  attention.  Pedagogy 
has  grown  to  be  a  science,  and  chairs  are 
founded  in  universities  to  expound  the  theory 
and  art  of  teaching.  The  learning  of  former 
times  has  become  the  ignorance  of  our  own ; 
and  the  classical  writings  have  ceased  to  be  the 
treasure-house  of  knowledge,  and  in  conse- 
quence their  educational  value  has  diminished. 
13 


194    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

Whoever  three  hundred  years  ago  wished  to 
acquaint  himself  with  philosophic,  poetic,  or 
eloquent  expression  of  the  best  that  was  known, 
was  compelled  to  seek  for  it  in  the  Greek  and 
Latin  authors ;  but  now  Greek  and  Latin  are 
accomplishments  chiefly,  and  a  classical  scholar, 
if  unacquainted  with  modern  science  and  litera- 
ture, is  hopelessly  ignorant.  "  If  any  one,"  said 
Hegius,  the  teacher  of  Erasmus,  "  wishes  to 
learn  grammar,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  history, 
or  holy  scripture,  let  him  read  Greek;"  and 
in  his  day  this  was  as  true  as  it  is  false  and 
absurd  in  our  own.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  Latin 
was  made  the  groundwork  of  the  educational 
system,  not  on  account  of  any  special  value  it 
may  have  been  supposed  to  possess  as  a  mental 
discipline,  but  because  it  was  the  language  of 
the  learned,  of  all  who  spoke  or  wrote  on  ques- 
tions of  religion,  philosophy,  literature,  and  sci- 
ence; but  now,  who  that  is  able  to  think 
dreams  of  burying  his  thought  in  a  Greek  or 
Roman  urn?  The  Germans  in  philosophy,  the 
English  in  poetry,  have  surpassed  the  Greeks; 
and  French  prose  is  not  inferior  in  qualities  of 
style  to  the  ancient  classics,  and  in  wealth  of 
thought  and  knowledge  so  far  excels  them  as  to 
preclude  comparison. 

The  life  of  Greece  and  Rome,  compared  with 
ours,  was  narrow  and  superficial;   their  ideas  of 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  195 

Nature  were  crude  and  often  grotesque;  they 
lacked  sympathy ;  the  Greek  had  no  sense  of 
sin;  the  Roman  none  of  the  mercy  which  tem 
pers  justice.  In  their  eyes  the  child  was  not 
holy,  woman  was  not  sacred,  the  slave  was  not 
man.  Their  notion  of  liberty  was  political  and 
patriotic  merely;  the  human  soul,  standing  forth 
alone,  and  appealing  from  States  and  emperors 
to  the  living  God,  was  to  them  a  scandal.  Now 
literature  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  people's  life  and 
thought,  and  the  nobler  the  life,  the  more  en- 
lightened the  thought,  the  more  valuable  will 
the  expression  be ;  and  since  there  is  greater 
knowledge,  wisdom,  freedom,  justice,  mercy, 
goodness,  power,  in  Christendom  now  than  ever 
existed  in  the  pagan  world,  it  would  certainly 
be  an  anomaly  if  modern  literature  were  inferior 
to  the  classical.  The  ancients,  indeed,  excel  us 
in  the  sense  for  form  and  symmetry.  There  is 
also  a  freshness  in  their  words,  a  joyousness  in 
their  life,  a  certain  heroic  temper  in  their  think- 
ing and  acting,  which  give  them  power  to  en- 
gage the  emotions ;  and  hence  to  deny  them 
exceptipnal  educational  value  is  to  take  a  partial 
view.  But  even  though  we  grant  that  the  study 
of  their  literatures  is  in  certain  respects  the  best 
intellectual  discipline,  education,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, means  knowledge  as  well  as  training; 
and  thorough  training  is  something  more  than 


196    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

refined  taste.  It  is  strength  as  well,  and  ability 
to  think  in  many  directions  and  on  many  sub- 
jects. Nothing  known  to  men  should  escape  the 
attention  of  the  wise ;  for  the  knowledge  of  the 
age  determines  what  is  demanded  of  the  scholar. 
And  since  it  is  our  privilege  to  live  at  a  time 
when  knowledge  is  increasing  more  rapidly  even 
than  population  and  wealth,  we  must,  if  we  hope 
to  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of  those  who  know, 
keep  pace  with  the  onward  movement  of  mind. 
To  turn  away  from  this  outburst  of  splendor 
and  power;  to  look  back  to  pagan  civilization  or 
Christian  barbarism,  —  is  to  love  darkness  more 
than  light.  Aristotle  is  a  great  mind,  but  his 
learning  is  crude  and  his  ideas  of  Nature  are  fre- 
quently grotesque.  Saint  Thomas  is  a  power- 
ful intellect;  but  his  point  of  view  in  all  that 
concerns  natural  knowledge  has  long  since  van- 
ished from  sight.  What  poverty  of  learning 
does  not  the  early  mediaeval  scheme  of  educa- 
tion reveal;  and  when  in  the  twelfth  century 
the  idea  of  a  university  rises  in  the  best  minds, 
how  incomplete  and  vague  it  is  !  Amid  the  ruins 
of  castles  and  cathedrals  we  grow  humble,  and 
think  ourselves  inferior  to  men  who  thus  could 
build.  But  they  were  not  as  strong  as  we,  and 
they  led  a  more  ignorant  and  a  blinder  life ;  and 
so  when  we  read  of  great  names  of  the  past,  the 
mists  of  illusion  fill  the  skies,  and  our  eyes  are 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 97 

dimmed  by  the  glory  of  clouds  tinged  with  the 
splendors  of  a  sun  that  has  set. 

Certainly  a  true  university  will  be  the  home 
both  of  ancient  wisdom  and  of  new  learning ;  it 
will  teach  the  best  that  is  known,  and  encourage 
research ;  it  will  stimulate  thought,  refine  taste, 
and  awaken  the  love  of  excellence ;  it  will  be  at 
once  a  scientific  institute,  a  school  of  culture, 
and  a  training  ground  for  the  business  of  life ; 
it  will  educate  the  minds  that  give  direction  to 
the  age ;  it  will  be  a  nursery  of  ideas,  a  centre 
of  influence.  The  good  we  do  men  is  quickly 
lost,  the  truth  we  leave  them  remains  forever; 
and  therefore  the  aim  of  the  best  education  is 
to  enable  students  to  see  what  is  true,  and  to  in- 
spire them  with  the  love  of  all  truth.  Profes- 
sional knowledge  brings  most  profit  to  the 
individual ;  but  philosophy  and  literature,  sci- 
ence and  art,  elevate  and  refine  the  spirit  of  the 
whole  people,  and  hence  the  university  will 
make  culture  its  first  aim,  and  its  scope  will 
widen  as  the  thoughts  and  attainments  of  men 
are  enlarged  and  multiplied.  Here  if  anywhere 
shall  be  found  teachers  whose  one  passion  is  the 
love  of  truth,  which  is  the  love  of  God  and  of 
man ;  who  look  on  all  things  with  a  serene  eye  ; 
who  bring  to  every  question  a  calm,  unbiassed 
mind  ;  who,  where  the  light  of  the  intellect  fails, 
walk  by  faith   and  accept  the  omen  of  hope; 


198     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

who  understand  that  to  be  distrustful  of  science 
is  to  lack  culture,  to  doubt  the  good  of  progress 
is  to  lack  knowledge,  and  to  question  the  neces- 
sity of  religion  is  to  want  wisdom ;  who  know 
that  in  a  God-made  and  God-governed  world  it 
must  lie  in  the  nature  of  things  that  reason  and 
virtue  should  tend  to  prevail,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  in  every  age  the  majority  of  men  think 
foolishly  and  act  unwisely.  How  divine  is  not 
man's  apprehensive  endowment!  When  we  see 
beauty  fade,  the  singer  lose  her  charm,  the  per- 
former his  skill,  we  feel  no  commiseration ;  but 
when  we  behold  a  noble  mind  falling  to  decay, 
we  are  saddened,  for  we  cannot  believe  that  the 
godlike  and  immortal  faculty  should  be  subject 
to  death's  power.  It  is  a  reflection  of  the  light 
that  never  yet  was  seen  on  sea  or  land ;  it  is  the 
magician  who  shapes  and  colors  the  universe, 
as  a  drop  of  water  mirrors  the  boundless  sky. 
Is  not  this  the  first  word  the  Eternal  speaks?  — 
"Let  there  be  light."  And  does  not  the  blessed 
Saviour  come  talking  of  life,  of  light,  of  truth, 
of  joy,  and  peace?  Have  not  the  Christian 
nations  moved  forward  following  after  liberty 
and  knowledge?  Is  not  our  religion  the  wor- 
ship of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth?  Is  not  its 
motive  Love,  divine  and  human,  and  is  not 
knowledge  Love's  guide  and  minister? 

The  future  prevails  over  the  present,  the  un- 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  1 99 

seen  over  what  touches  the  senses  only  in  high 
and  cultivated  natures ;  and  it  is  held  to  be  the 
supreme  triumph  of  God  over  souls  when  the 
young,  to  whom  the  earth  seems  to  be  heaven 
revealed  and  made  palpable,  turn  from  all  the 
beauty  and  contagious  joy  to  seek,  to  serve, 
to  love  Him  who  is  the  infinite  and  only 
real  good.  Yet  this  is  what  we  ask  of  the  lov- 
ers of  intellectual  excellence,  who  work  with- 
out hope  of  temporal  reward  and  without  the 
strength  of  heart  which  is  found  in  obeying  the 
Divine  Will;  for  mental  improvement  is  seldom 
urged  as  a  religious  duty,  although  it  is  plain 
that  to  seek  to  know  truth  is  to  seek  to  know 
God,  in  whom  and  through  whom  and  by  whom 
all  things  are,  and  whose  infinite  nature  and  most 
awful  power  may  best  be  seen  by  the  largest  and 
most  enlightened  mind.  Mind  is  Heaven's  pio- 
neer making  way  for  faith,  hope,  and  love,  for 
higher  aims  and  nobler  life ;  and  to  doubt  its 
worth  and  excellence  is  to  deny  the  reason- 
ableness of  religion,  since  belief,  if  not  wholly 
blind,  must  rest  on  knowledge.  The  best  cul- 
ture serves  spiritual  and  moral  ends.  Its  aim 
and  purpose  is  to  make  reason  prevail  over 
sense  and  appetite  ;  to  raise  man  not  only  to 
a  perception  of  the  harmonies  of  truth,  but 
also  to  the  love  of  whatever  is  good  and  fair. 
Not  in  a  darkened  mind  does  the  white  ray  of 


200    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

heavenly  light  break  into  prismatic  glory;  not 
through  the  mists  of  ignorance  is  the  sweet 
countenance  of  the  divine  Saviour  best  dis- 
cerned. If  some  have  pursued  a  sublime  art 
frivolously;  have  soiled  a  fair  mind  by  igno- 
ble life, — this  leaves  the  good  of  the  intellect 
untouched.  Some  who  have  made  strongest 
profession  of  religion,  who  have  held  high  and 
the  highest  places  in  the  Church,  have  been 
unworthy,  but  we  do  not  thence  infer  that  the 
tendency  of  religion  is  to  make  men  so.  They 
who  praise  the  bliss  and  worth  of  ignorance 
are  sophists.  Stupidity  is  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  malignity;  for  ignorance,  and  not  malice, 
is  the  most  fruitful  cause  of  human  misery. 
Let  knowledge  grow,  let  truth  prevail.  Since 
God  is  God,  the  universe  is  good,  and  the  more 
we  know  of  its  laws,  the  plainer  will  the  right 
way  become.  The  investigator  and  the  thinker, 
the  man  of  culture  and  the  man  of  genius,  can- 
not free  themselves  from  bias  and  limitation ; 
but  the  work  they  do  will  help  me  and  all 
men. 

Indifference  or  opposition  to  the  intellectual 
life  is  but  a  survival  of  the  general  anti-educa- 
tional prejudices  of  former  ages.  It  is  also  a 
kind  of  envy,  prompting  us  to  find  fault  with 
whatever  excellence  is  a  reproach  to  our  un- 
worthiness.     The  disinterested  love  of  truth  is 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  201 

a  rare  virtue,  most  difficult  to  acquire  and  most 
difficult  to  preserve.  If  knowledge  bring  power 
and  wealth,  if  it  give  fame  and  pleasure,  it  is 
dear  to  us ;  but  how  many  are  able  to  love  it 
for  its  own  sake?  Do  not  nearly  all  men  strive 
to  convince  themselves  of  the  truth  of  those 
opinions  which  they  are  interested  in  holding? 
What  is  true,  good,  or  fair  is  rarely  at  once 
admitted  to  be  so;  but  what  is  practically 
useful  men  quickly  accept,  because  they  live 
chiefly  in  the  world  of  external  things,  and 
care  little  for  the  spiritual  realms  of  truth  and 
beauty.  The  ignorant  do  not  even  believe  that 
knowledge  gives  power  and  pleasure,  and  the 
educated,  except  the  chosen  few,  value  it  only 
for  the  power  and  pleasure  it  gives.  As  the 
disinterested  love  of  truth  is  rare,  so  is  per- 
fect sincerity.  Indeed,  insincerity  is  here  the 
radical  vice.  Good  faith  is  essential  to  faith ; 
and  a  sophistical  mind  is  as  immoral  and  irre- 
ligious as  a  depraved  heart.  Let  a  man  be 
true,  seek  and  speak  truth,  and  all  good  things 
are  possible ;  but  when  he  persuades  himself 
that  a  lie  may  be  useful  and  ought  to  be  prop- 
agated, he  becomes  the  enemy  of  his  own  soul 
and  the  foe  of  all  that  makes  life  high  and  god- 
like. 

Now,  to  be  able  to  desire  to  see  things  as 
they  are,  whatever   their  relations  to  ourselves 


202     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

may  be,  and  to  speak  of  them  simply  as  they 
appear  to  us,  is  one  result  of  the  best  training 
of  the  intellect,  which  in  the  world  of  thought 
and  opinion  gives  us  that  sweet  indifference 
which  is  the  rule  of  saints  when  they  submit 
the  conduct  of  their  lives  wholly  to  divine 
guidance.  Why  should  he  whose  mind  is 
strong,  and  rests  on  God,  be  disturbed?  It  is 
with  opinion  as  with  life.  We  cannot  tell 
what  moment  truth  will  overthrow  the  one  and 
death  the  other;  but  thought  cannot  change 
the  nature  of  things.  The  clouds  dissolve,  but 
the  eternal  heavens  remain.  Over  the  bloodi- 
est battlefields  they  bend  calm  and  serene, 
and  trees  drink  the  sunlight  and  flowers  ex- 
hale perfume.  The  moonbeam  kisses  the  cra- 
ter's lip.  Over  buried  cities  the  yellow  harvest 
waves,  and  all  the  catastrophes  of  endless  time 
are  present  to  God,  who  dwells  in  infinite 
peace.  He  sees  the  universe  and  is  not  trou- 
bled, and  shall  not  we  who  are  akin  to  him 
learn  to  look  upon  our  little  meteorite  without 
losing  repose  of  mind  and  heart?  Were  it  not 
a  sweeter  piety  to  trust  that  he  who  made  all 
things  will  know  how  to  make  all  things  right ; 
and  therefore  not  to  grow  anxious  lest  some  in- 
vestigator should  find  him  at  fault  or  thwart 
his  plans?  As  living  bodies  are  immersed  in 
an   invisible    substance   which    feeds    the    flame 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  203 

of  life,  so  souls  breathe  and  think  and  love  in 
the  atmosphere  of  God,  and  the  higher  their 
thought  and  love  the  more  do  they  partake  of 
the  divine  nature.  Many  things,  in  this  age  of 
transition,  are  passing  away ;  but  true  thoughts 
and  pure  love  are  immortal,  and  whatever  opin- 
ions as  to  other  things  a  man  may  hold,  all 
know  that  to  be  human  is  to  be  intelligent 
and  moral,  and  therefore  religious.  A  hundred 
years  hence  our  present  machinery  may  seem 
to  be  as  rude  as  the  implements  of  the  middle 
age  look  to  us,  and  our  political  and  social 
organization  may  appear  barbarous,  —  so  rapid 
has  the  movement  of  life  become.  But  we  do 
not  envy  those  who  shall  then  be  living,  partly 
it  may  be  because  we  can  have  but  dim  visions 
of  the  greater  blessings  they  shall  enjoy,  but 
chiefly  because  we  feel  that  after  all  the  true 
worth  of  life  lies  in  nothing  of  this  kind,  but 
in  knowing  and  doing,  in  believing  and  loving  ; 
and  that  it  would  not  be  easier  to  live  for  truth 
and  righteousness  were  electricity  applied  to 
aerial  navigation  and  all  the  heavens  filled  with 
argosies  of  magic  sail.  It  is  not  possible  to 
love  sincerely  the  best  thoughts,  as  it  is  not 
possible  to  love  God  when  our  aim  is  some- 
thing external,  or  when  we  believe  that  what 
is  mechanical  merely  has  power  to  regenerate 
and  exalt  mankind. 


204    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

"  It  takes  a  soul 
To  move  a  body  ;  it  takes  a  high-souled  man 
To  move  the  masses  ....  even  to  a  cleaner  sty ; 
It  takes  the  ideal  to  blow  a  hair's-breadth  off 
The  dust  of  the  actual  —    Ah,  your  Fouriers  failed, 
Because  not  poets  enough  to  understand 
That  life  develops  from  within." 

He  who  believes  in  culture  must  believe  in 
God ;  for  what  but  God  do  we  mean  when  we 
talk  of  loving  the  best  thoughts  and  the  highest 
beauty?  No  God,  no  best;  but  at  most  better 
and  worse.  And  how  shall  a  man's  delight  in 
his  growing  knowledge  not  be  blighted  by  a 
hidden  taint,  if  he  is  persuaded  that  at  the  core 
of  the  universe  there  is  only  blind  unconscious 
force?  But  if  he  believe  that  God  is  infinite 
power  working  for  truth  and  love,  then  can  he 
also  feel  that  in  seeking  to  prepare  his  mind  for 
the  perception  of  truth  and  his  heart  for  the 
love  of  what  is  good  and  fair,  he  is  working  with 
God,  and  moves  along  the  way  in  which  his 
omnipotent  hand  guides  heavenly  spirits  and  all 
the  countless  worlds.  He  desires  that  all  men 
should  be  wiser  and  stronger  and  more  loving, 
even  though  he  should  be  doomed  to  remain  as 
he  is,  for  then  they  would  have  power  to  help 
him.  He  is  certain  of  himself,  and  feels  no  fear 
nor  anger  when  his  opinions  are  opposed.  He 
learns  to  bear  what  he  cannot  prevent,  knowing 
that  courage  and  patience  make  tolerable  im- 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  205 

medicable  ills.  He  feels  no  self-complacency, 
but  rather  the  self-dissatisfaction  which  comes 
of  the  consciousness  of  possessing  faculties 
which  he  can  but  imperfectly  use.  And  this 
discontent  he  believes  to  be  the  infinite  God 
stirring  within  the  soul.  As  the  earthquake 
which  swallows  some  island  in  another  hemi- 
sphere disturbs  not  the  even  tenor  of  our  way, 
so  the  passions  of  men  whose  world  is  other 
than  his,  who  dwell  remote  from  what  he  con- 
templates and  loves,  shake  not  his  tranquil 
mind.  While  they  threaten  and  pursue,  his 
thought  moves  in  spheres  unknown  to  them. 
He  knows  how  little  life  at  the  best  can  give, 
and  is  not  hard  to  console  for  the  loss  of  any- 
thing. There  is  no  true  thought  which  he  would 
not  gladly  make  his  own,  even  though  it  should 
be  the  watchword  of  his  enemies.  Since  moral- 
ity is  practical  truth,  he  understands  that  in- 
creasing knowledge  will  make  it  at  once  more 
evident  and  more  attractive.  Hatred  between 
races  and  nations  he  holds  to  be  not  less  un- 
christian than  the  hatred  which  arms  the  indi- 
vidual against  his  fellow-man.  It  is  impossible 
for  him  to  be  a  scoffer;  for  whatever  has 
strengthened  or  consoled  a  human  soul  is  sacred 
in  his  eyes ;  and  wherever  there  is  question  of 
what  is  socially  complex,  as  of  a  religion  or  a 
civilization,  there   is   question   of  many  human 


206    EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

lives,  their  hopes,  their  joys,  their  strivings, 
their  yearnings,  disappointments,  agonies,  and 
deaths ;  and  he  is  able  to  perceive  that  in  the 
ports  of  levity  there  is  no  refuge  for  hearts  that 
mourn.  Does  not  love  itself,  in  its  heaven  of 
bliss,  turn  away  from  him  who  mocks?  The 
lover  of  the  intellectual  life  knows  neither  con- 
tempt nor  indignation,  is  not  elated  by  success 
or  cast  down  by  failure ;  money  cannot  make  him 
rich,  and  poverty  helps  to  make  him  free.  His 
own  experience  teaches  him  that  men  in  becom- 
ing wiser  will  become  nobler  and  happier;  and 
this  sweet  truth  has  in  his  eyes  almost  the  ele- 
ments of  a  religion.  With  growing  knowledge 
his  power  of  sympathy  is  enlarged ;  until  like 
Saint  Francis,  he  can  call  the  sun  his  brother  and 
the  moon  his  sister;  can  grieve  with  homeless 
winds,  and  feel  a  kinship  with  the  clod.  The  very 
agonies  by  which  his  soul  has  been  wrung  open 
to  his  gaze  visions  of  truth  which  else  he  had 
never  caught,  and  so  he  finds  even  in  things  evil 
some  touch  of  goodness.  Praise  and  blame  are 
for  children,  but  to  him  impertinent.  He  is  toler- 
ant of  absurdity  because  it  is  so  all-pervading  that 
he  whom  it  fills  with  indignation  can  have  no 
repose.  While  he  labors  like  other  men  to  keep 
his  place  in  the  world,  he  strives  to  make  the 
work  whereby  he  maintains  himself,  and  those 
who  cling  to  him,  serve   intellectual  and  moral 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  20/ 

ends.  He  has  a  meek  and  lowly  heart,  and  he 
has  also  a  free  and  illumined  mind,  and  a  soul 
without  fear.  He  knows  that  no  gift  or  accom- 
plishment is  incompatible  with  true  religion ;  for 
has  not  the  Church  intellects  as  many-sided  and 
as  high  as  Augustine  and  Chrysostom,  Dante 
and  Calderon,  Descartes  and  Da  Vinci,  De  Vega 
and  Cervantes,  Bossuet  and  Pascal,  Saint  Ber- 
nard and  Gregory  the  Seventh,  Aquinas  and 
Michael  Angelo,  Mozart  and  Fenelon?  Ah!  I 
behold  the  youthful  throng,  happier  than  we, 
who  here,  in  their  own  sweet  country, — in  this 
city  of  goverment  and  of  law  with  its  wide 
streets,  its  open  spaces,  its  air  of  freedom  and  of 
light,  —  undisturbed  by  the  soul-depressing  hum 
of  commerce  and  the  unintellectual  din  of  ma- 
chinery, shall  hearken  to  the  voice  of  wisdom 
and  walk  in  the  pleasant  ways  of  knowledge, 
alive,  in  every  sense,  to  catch  whatever  message 
may  come  to  them  from  God's  universe;  who, 
as  they  are  drawn  to  what  is  higher  than  them- 
selves, shall  be  drawn  together,  like  planets  to  a 
sun ;  whose  minds,  aglow  wnth  high  thinking, 
shall  taste  joy  and  delight  fresher  and  purer 
than  merriest  laughter  ever  tells.  Who  has  not 
seen,  when  leaden  clouds  fill  the  sky  and  throw 
gloomy  shadows  on  the  earth,  some  little 
meadow  amid  the  hills,  with  its  trees  and  flow- 
ers,   its    grazing    kine    and    running    brook,    all 


208     EDUCATION  AND    THE  HIGHER  LIFE. 

bathed   in   sunlight,   and    smihng    as    though  a 
mother  said,  Come  hither,  darhng? 

Such  to  my  fancy  is  this  favored  spot,  whose 
invitation  is  to  the  fortunate  few  who  beUeve 
that  "  the  noblest  mind  the  best  contentment 
has,"  and  that  the  fairest  land  is  that  which 
brings  forth  and  nurtures  the  fairest  souls. 
When  youthful  friends  drift  apart,  and  meet 
again  after  years,  they  find  they  have  been  liv- 
ing not  only  in  different  cities,  but  in  different 
worlds.  Those  who  shall  come  up  to  the  uni- 
versity must  turn  away  from  much  the  world 
holds  dear;  and  while  the  companions  they 
leave  behind  shall  linger  in  pleasant  places  or 
shall  get  money,  position,  and  applause,  they 
must  move  on  amid  ever-increasing  loneliness 
of  life  and  thought.  Xantippe  would  have  had 
altogether  a  better  opinion  of  Socrates  had  he 
not  been  a  philosopher,  and  the  best  we  do  is 
often  that  for  which  our  age  and  our  friends 
care  the  least ;  but  they  who  have  once  tasted 
the  delights  of  a  cultivated  mind  would  not  ex- 
change them  for  the  gifts  of  fortune,  and  to 
have  beheld  the  fair  face  of  wisdom  is  to  be  for- 
ever her  votary.  Words  spoken  for  the  masses 
grow  obsolete ;  but  what  is  fit  to  be  heard  by 
the  chosen  few  shall  be  true  and  beautiful  while 
such  minds  are  found  on  earth.  In  the  end, 
it   is   this   little  band  —  this  intellectual  aristoc- 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  209 

racy  —  who  move  and  guide  the  world.  They 
see  what  is  possible,  outline  projects,  and  give 
impulse,  while  the  people  do  the  work.  That 
which  is  strongest  in  man  is  mind ;  and  when  a 
mind  truly  vigorous,  open,  supple,  and  illumined 
reveals  itself,  we  follow  in  its  path  of  light. 
How  it  may  be  I  do  not  know;  but  the  very 
brain  and  heart  of  genius  throbs  forever  in  the 
words  on  which  its  spirit  has  breathed.  Let 
this  seed,  though  hidden  like  the  grain  in 
mummy  pits  for  thousands  of  years,  but  fall 
on  proper  soil,  and  soon  the  golden  harvest  shall 
wave  beneath  the  dome  of  azure  skies ;  let  but 
some  generous  youth  bend  over  the  electric 
page,  and  lo  !  all  his  being  shall  thrill  and  flame 
with  new-born  life  and  light.  Genuis  is  a  gift. 
But  whoever  keeps  on  doing  in  all  earnestness 
something  which  he  need  not  do,  and  for  which 
the  world  cares  hardly  at  all,  if  he  have  not 
genius,  has  at  least  one  of  its  chief  marks  ;  and 
it  is,  I  think,  an  important  function  of  a  uni- 
versity to  create  an  intellectual  atmosphere 
in  which  the  love  of  excellence  shall  become 
contagious,  which  whosoever  breathes  shall, 
like  the  Sibyl,  feel  the  inspiration  of  divine 
thoughts. 

Sweet  home !  where  Wisdom,  like  a  mother, 
shall  lead  her  children  in  pleasant  ways,  and  to 
their  thoughts  a  touch  of  heaven  lend  !     From 
14 


2IO    EDUCATION  AND    THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 

thee  I  claim  for  my  faith  and  my  country  more 
blessings  than  I  can  speak,  — 

Our  scattered  knowledges  together  bind  ; 

Our  freedom  consecrate  to  noble  aims. 
To  music  set  the  visions  of  the  mind  ; 

Give  utterance  to  the  truth  pure  faith  proclaims. 
Lead  where  the  perfect  beauty  lies  enshrined, 

Whose  sight  the  blood  of  low-bom  passion  tames. 

And  now,  how  shall  I  more  fittingly  conclude 
than  with  the  name  of  her  whose  generous 
heart  and  enlightened  mind  were  the  impulse 
which  has  given  to  what  had  long  been  hope 
deferred  and  a  dreamlike  vision,  existence  and  a 
dwelling-place,  —  Mary  Gwendolen  Caldwell. 


THE  END. 


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FACT,  FANCY,  AND  FABLE. 

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JFamiliar  Calks  on  ^istronomp* 

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into  the  heart  of  foreign  life.  —  Advance,  Chicago. 


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THE  STANDARD  OPERAS.  Their 
Plots,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.  By 
George  P.  Upton,  author  of  "  Woman  in  Music," 
etc.,  etc 

i2ino,  flexible  cloth,  yellow  edges $i-50 

The  same,  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges z.oo 


"  Mr.  Upton  has  performed  a  service  that  can  hardly  be  toe 
higlily  appreciated,  in  collecting  the  plots,  music,  and  the  com- 
posers of  the  standard  operas,  to  the  number  of  sixty-four,  and 
bringing  them  together  in  one  perfectly  arranged  volume.  •  .  . 
His  work  is  one  simply  invaluable  to  the  general  reading  pub- 
lic. Technicalities  are  avoided,  the  aim  being  to  give  to  musi- 
cally uneducated  lovers  of  the  opera  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
works  they  hear.  It  is  description,  not  criticism,  and  calculated 
to  greatly  increase  the  intelligent  enjoyment  of  music." — Boston 
Traveller. 

"  Among  the  multitude  of  handbooks  which  are  published 
every  year,  and  are  described  by  easy-going  writers  of  book- 
notices  as  supplying  a  long-felt  want,  we  know  of  none  which 
so  completely  carries  out  the  intention  of  the  writer  as  '  The 
Standard  Operas,'  by  Mr.  George  P.  Upton,  whose  object  is  to 
present  to  his  readers  a  comprehensive  sketch  of  each  of  the 
operas  contained  in  the  modem  repertory.  .  .  ,  There  are 
thousands  of  music-loving  people  who  will  be  glad  to  have  the 
kind  of  knowledge  which  Mr.  Upton  has  collected  for  their 
benefit,  and  has  cast  in  a  clear  and  compact  form."  —  R.  H. 
Stoddard,  in  "  Evening  Mail  and  Express"  {New  York). 

"The  summaries  of  the  plots  are  so  clear,  logical,  and  well 
written,  that  one  can  read  them  with  real  pleasure,  which  cannot 
be  said  of  the  ordinary  operatic  synopses.  But  the  most  im- 
portant circumstance  is  that  Mr.  Upton's  book  is  fully  abreast 
of  the  times."  —  The  Nation  (New  York), 


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THE  STANDARD  ORATORIOS. 
Their  Stories,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.  A 
Handbook.  By  George  P.  Upton.  i2mo,  335  pages, 
yellow  edges,  price,  ^1.50;  extra  gilt,  gilt   edges,  $2. 00. 

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Music  lovers  are  under  a  new  obhgation  to  Mr.  Upton  for  this 
companion  to  his  "Standard  Operas," — two  books  which  de- 
serve to  be  placed  on  the  same  shelf  with  Grove's  and  Riemann's 
musical  dictionaries.  —  The  Nation,  New  York. 

Mr.  George  P.  Upton  has  followed  in  the  lines  that  he  laid 
down  in  his  "  Standard  Operas,"  and  has  produced  an  admira- 
ble handwork,  which  answers  every  purpose  that  such  a  volume 
is  designed  to  answer,  and  which  is  certain  to  be  popular  now 
and  for  years  to  come.  —  The  Mail  atid  Express,  New  York. 

Like  the  valuable  art  hand-books  of  Mrs.  Jamison,  these 
volumes  contain  a  world  of  interesting  information,  indispensable 
to  critics  and  art  amateurs.  The  volume  under  review  is  ele- 
gantly and  succinctly  written,  and  the  subjects  are  handled  in  a 
thoroughly  comprehensive  manner.  —  Public  Opinion,  Wash- 
ington ■ 

The  book  is  a  masterpiece  of  skilful  handling,  charming  the 
reader  with  its  pure  English  style,  and  keeping  his  attention 
always  awake  in  an  arrangement  of  matter  which  makes  each 
succeeding  page  and  chapter  fresh  in  interest  and  always  full 
of  instruction,  while  always  entertaining.  —  'The  Standard, 
Chicago. 

The  author  of  this  book  has  done  a  real  service  to  the  vast 
number  of  people  who,  while  they  are  lovers  of  music,  have 
neither  the  leisure  nor  inclination  to  become  deeply  versed  in  its 
literature.  .  .  .  The  information  conveyed  is  of  just  the  sort  that 
the  average  of  cultivated  people  will  welcome  as  an  aid  to  com- 
prehending and  talking  about  this  species  of  musical  composi- 
tion. —  Church  Magazine,  Philadelphia. 

• 

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T^HE  STANDARD  CANTATAS.  Their 

■■-  Stories,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.  A  Hand- 
book. By  George  P.  Upton.  i2mo,  367  pages,  yellow 
edges,  price,  gi.50  ;  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges,  ^2.00. 

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The  "  Standard  Cantatas  "  forms  the  third  volume  in  the  uni» 
form  series  which  already  includes  the  now  well  known  "  Stan- 
dard Operas"  and  the  "  Standard  Oratorios."  This  latest  work 
deals  with  a  class  of  musical  compositions,  midway  between  the 
opera  and  the  oratorio,  which  is  growing  rapidly  in  favor  both 
with  composers  and  audiences. 

As  in  the  two  former  works,  the  subject  is  treated,  so  far  as 
possible,  in  an  untechnical  manner,  so  that  it  may  satisfy  the 
needs  of  musically  uneducated  music  lovers,  and  add  to  their  en- 
joyment by  a  plain  statement  of  the  story  of  the  cantata  and  a 
popular  analysis  of  its  music,  with  brief  pertinent  selections  from 
its  poetical  text. 

The  book  includes  a  comprehensive  essay  on  the  origin  of  the 
cantata,  and  its  development  from  rude  beginnings  ;  biographical 
sketches  of  the  composers ;  carefully  prepared  descriptions  of 
the  plots  and  the  music  ;  and  an  appendix  containing  the  names 
and  dates  of  composition  of  all  the  best  known  cantatas  from  the 
earliest  times. 

This  series  of  works  on  popular  music  has  steadily  grown  in 
favor  since  the  appearance  of  the  first  volume  on  the  Operas. 
When  the  series  is  completed,  as  it  will  be  next  year  by  a  volume 
on  the  Standard  Symphonies,  it  will  be,  as  the  New  York 
"  Nation  '  has  said,  indispensable  to  every  musical  Hbrary. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  on  receipt  of  price,  by 
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THE     STANDARD      SYMPHONIES. 
Their  History,  their  Music;  and  their  Composers. 
A  Handbook.     By  George  P.  Upton.     i2mo,  321  pages, 
yellow  edges,  price  gr.jo;  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges,  S2.00. 
In  half  calf,  gUt  top    .     ■    •    ■    $3  23 
In  half  morocco,  gilt  edges      .       3-75 
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The  usefulness  of  this  handbook  cannot  be  doubted.  Its 
pages  are  packed  full  of  these  fascinadng  renderings.  1  he 
accounts  of  each  composer  are  succinct  and  yet  sufificient.  1  he 
author  has  done  a  genuine  service  to  the  world  of  music  lovers. 
The  comprehension  of  orchestral  work  of  the  highest  character 
is  aided  efficiendy  by  this  volume.  The  mechanical  execu  ion 
of  the  volume  is  in  harmonv  with  its  subject.  No  worthier 
volume  can  be  found  to  put  into  the  hands  of  an  amateur  or  a 
iriendoi  music  — PiMic  Op imofi,  H'<is/uftsrioH. 

None  who  have  seen  the  previous  books  of  Mr.  Upton  will 
need  assurance  that  this  is  as  indispensable  as  the  others  to  one 
who  would  listen  intelligently  to  that  better  class  of  music  which 
musicians  congratulate   themselves  Americans  are   learning  to 

There  has  never  been,  in  this  country  at  least,  so  thorough  an 
attempt  to  collate  the  facts  of  programme  music.  ...  As  a 
definite  helper  in  some  cases  and  as  a  refresher  in  others  we 
believe  Mr.  Upton's  book  to  have  a  lasting  value.  .  .  •  .the 
book,  in  brief,  shows  enthusiastic  and  honorable  educational 
purpose,  good  taste,  and  sound  scholarship.  —  ^/^^  American, 

Uptot/s  books  should  be  read  and  studied  by  all  who  desire  to 
acquaint  themselves  with  the  facts  and  accomplishments  in  these 
interesting   forms  of    musical  composition.  — /^/t^   l^e'ce,  New 

It  is  written  in  a  style  that  cannot  fail  to  stitriulate  the  reader, 
if  also  a  student  of  music,  to  strive  to  find  for  himself  the  under- 
lying meanings  of  the  compositions  of  the  great  composers. 
It  contains,  besides,  a  vast  amount  of  information  about  the 
symphony,  its  evolution  and  structure,  with  sketches  of  the  com- 
posers, and  a  detailed  technical  description  of  a  few  symphonic 
models.  It  meets  a  recognized  want  of  all  concert  goers.— 
The  Chautauquatt. 

Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  on  receipt  of  price,  by 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

Cor.  Wabash  Avk.  and  Madison  St.,  Chicago. 


■piOGRAPHIES    OF   MUSICIANS. 

LIFE   OF    LISZT.    With  Portrait. 
LIFE   OF    HAYDN.     With  Portrait 
LIFE  OF   MOZART.    With  Portrait. 
LIFE    OF    WAGNER.     With  Portrait. 
LIFE   OF   BEETHOVEN.    With  Portrait. 
Prom  tJie  German  of  Dr.  Louis  Nohl, 

In  cloth,  per  volume $  x.oo 

The  same,  in  neat  box,  per  set 5.00 

In  half  calf,  per  set 12.50 

♦ 

Of  the  "Life  of  Liszt,"  the  Herald  (Boston)  says:  •*  It  is 
written  in  great  simplicity  and  perfect  taste,  and  is  whoUy  suc- 
cessful in  all  that  it  undertakes  to  portray." 

Of  the  "  Life  of  Haydn,"  the  Gazette  (Boston)  says  :  *'  No 
fuller  history  of  Haydn's  career,  the  society  in  which  he  moved, 
and  of  his  personal  life  can  be  found  than  is  given  in  this  work." 
Of  the  "  Life  of  Mozart,"  the  Standard  says:  "Mozart  sup- 
plies a  fascinating  subject  for  biographical  treatment.  He  lives 
in  these  pages  somewhat  as  the  world  saw  him,  from  his  marvel- 
lous boyhood  till  his  untimely  death." 

Of  the  "  Life  of  Wagner,"  the  American  (Baltimore)  says: 
"  It  gives  in  vigorous  outlines  those  events  of  the  life  of  the  tone 
poet  which  exercised  the  greatest  influences  upon  his  artistic 
career.  ...  It  is  a  story  of  a  strange  life  devoted  to  lofty  aims." 

Of  the  "  Life  of  Beethoven,"  the  National  Journal  of  Edw 
cation  says :  "  Beethoven  was  great  and  noble  as  a  man,  and 
his  artistic  creations  were  in  harmony  with  his  great  nature. 
The  story  of  his  life,  outlined  in  this  volume,  is  of  the  deepest 
interest." 


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LIFE     OF     ABRAHAM      LINCOLN, 
By  the  Hon.  Isaac    N.   Arnold.    With  Steel 
Portrait.     Svo,  cloth,    471  pages.     Price,  §1.50. 

la  half  calf,  $4.75 ;  half  morocco,  $5.00. 


It  is  decidedly  the  best  and  most  complete  Life  of  Lincoln 
that  has  yet  appeared.  —  Contemporary  Review,  London, 

Mr.  Arnold  succeeded  to  a  singular  extent  in  assuming  the 
broad  view  and  judicious  voice  of  posterity  and  exhibiting  the 
greatest  figure  of  our  time  in  its  true  perspective.  —  The  Trib- 
une, New  York. 

It  is  the  only  Life  of  Lincoln  thus  far  published  that  is  likely 
to  live,  —  the  only  one  that  has  any  serious  pretensions  to  depict 
him  with  adequate  veracity,  completeness,  and  dignity.  —  The 
Sun,  New  York. 

The  author  knew  Mr  Lincoln  long  and  intimately,  and  no  one 
was  better  fitted  for  the  task  of  preparing  his  biography.  He 
has  written  with  tenderness  and  fidelity,  with  keen  discrimina- 
tion, and  with  graphic  powers  of  description  and  analysis.  —  'The 
Interior,  Chicago. 

Mr.  Arnold's  "  Life  of  President  Lincoln  "  is  excellent  in 
almost  every  respect.  .  .  .  The  author  has  painted  a  graphic  and 
life-like  portrait  of  the  remarkable  man  who  was  called  to  decide 
on  the  destinies  of  his  country  at  the  crisis  of  its  fate.  —  The 
Times,  London. 

The  book  is  particularly  rich  in  incidents  connected  with  the 
early  career  of  Mr.  Lincoln  ;  and  it  is  without  exception  the 
most  satisfactory  record  of  his  life  that  has  yet  been  written. 
Readers  will  also  find  that  in  its  entirety  it  is  a  work  of  absorb- 
ing and  enduring  interest  that  will  enchain  the  attention  more 
effectually  than  any  novel.  —  Magazine  of  American  History, 

New  York. 

• 

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Cor.  Wabash  Avk.  and  Madison  St.,  Chicago. 


THE    AZTECS.     Their    History,    Man- 
ners,  and  Customs.    From  the  French  of  Lucien 
BiART.     Authorized  translation  by  J.  L.  Garner. 
Illustrated,  8vo,  340  pages,  price,  $2.00. 


The  author  has  travelled  through  the  country  of  whose  former 
glories  his  book  is  a  recital,  and  his  studies  and  discoveries  leaven 
the  book  throughout.  The  volume  is  absorbingly  interesting, 
and  is  as  attractive  in  style  as  it  is  in  material.  —  Saturday 
Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 

Nowhere  has  this  subject  been  more  fully  and  intelligently 
treated  than  in  this  volume,  now  placed  within  reach  of  American 
readers.  The  mythology  of  the  Aztecs  receives  special  attention, 
and  all  that  is  known  of  their  lives,  their  hopes,  their  fears,  and 
aspirations  finds  record  here..^  The  Tribune,  Chicago. 

The  man  who  can  rise  from  the  study  of  Lucien  Biart's  inval- 
uable work,  "The  Aztecs,"  without  feelings  of  amazement  and 
admiration  for  the  history  and  the  government,  and  for  the  arts 
cultivated  by  these  Romans  of  the  New  World  is  not  to  be 
envied. —  The  Advance,  Chicago. 

The  twilight  origin  of  the  present  race  is  graphically  presented; 
those  strange  people  whose  traces  have  almost  vanished  from  oS 
the  face  of  the  earth  again  live  before  us.  Their  taxes  and  trib- 
utes, their  marriage  ceremonies,  their  burial  customs,  laws, 
medicines,  food,  poetry,  and  dances  are  described  .  .  .  The 
book  is  a  very  interesting  one,  and  is  brought  out  with  copious 
illustrations.  —  The  Traveller,  Boston. 

M.  Biart  is  the  most  competent  authority  living  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Aztecs.  He  spent  many  years  in  Mexico,  studied 
his  subject  carefully  through  all  means  of  information,  and  wrote 
his  book  from  the  view-point  of  a  scientist.  His  style  is  very  at- 
tractive, and  it  has  been  very  successfully  translated.  The  gen- 
eral reader,  as  well  as  all  scholars,  will  be  much  taken  with  the 
work.  —  Chronicle  Telegraph,  Pittsburg. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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